\ 


FACTS  in  a  NUTSHELL 

About  Immigration 
Yellow  and  Whit 


BY 

ARETAS  W.  THOMAS 


FIFTEEN  CENTS 


e  Columbia  Psblishiig  Co. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C, 

W»  & <u^r^' 


n 


Facts  in  a  Nutshell  About 
Immigration,  Yellow  and  White 


...  BY  ... 

ARETAS  W.  THOMAS 

Author  of 

'Democracy  and  Direct  legislation," 

"The  Philippines  and  the  Purpose/' 

etc.,  etc.,  etc 


FIFTEEN    CENTS 


THE  COLUMBIA  PUBLISHING  COMPANY, 
Washington,  D.  C. 


,-cs 


Copyright,    1912 
By  Aretas  W.  Tho 


THE  VITAL  ISSUE 

The  most  important  issue  of  this 
presidential  campaign  is  the  ques- 
tion of  immigration.  It  is  the  most 
important  question  because  it  tends 
to  settle  what  kind  of  people  shall 
make  up  the  population  of  this 
country  at  the  present  time  and  in 
times  to  come.  The  kind  of  people 
there  are  in  the  country  inevitably 
determines  the  kind  of  civilization, 
the  standards  of  life,  industrial  and 
social,  the  kind  of  government  and 
liberty,  the  measure  of  progress 
and  happiness  which  shall  prevail 
here  now  and  hereafter.  It  is  the 
basic  issue  of  all  questions  now 
pending  before  the  American  peo- 
ple. Every  voter  should,  first  of  all, 
pay  attention  to  the  record,  and 
views  upon  immigration  of  each 
candidate  for  whom  he  is  to  vote  in 
(the  coming  election,  including  the 
office  of  the  President  and  all  sub- 
ordinate officeholders. 

266904 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


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THE 

YELLOW 

IMMIGRATION 


Facts  in  a  Nutshell  About 
Immigration,  Yellow  and  White 


ONE. 

"I  can  and  do  declare  as  the  ac- 
credited Ambassador  of  my  Emperor  at 
Washington,  that  the  relations  between 
the  two  governments  are  as  friendly 
-as  at  any  moment  in  history,"  said 
Ambassiador  Aoki,  of  Japan,  in  1907. 
"The  factors  in  the  peaceful  resolution 
of  the  racial  differences  will  be  com- 
merce and  marriage. "  *  *  ■*  "The 
instruments  by  which  that  is  brought 
about  are  chiefly  the  two  I  have  named 
— the  process  of  trade  and  the  institution 
of  marriage." 

This  declaration  by  a  high  official  rep- 
resenting a  government  of  fifty  million 
Yellow  Type  men  (Japanese),  is  worthy 
of  consideration. 

Asiatic  immigration  presents  two 
phases,  the  economic  and  the  ethnic. 
Here,  in  brief,  is  the  economic  phase. 
There  are  twice  as  many  Yellow  men 
(Chinese,   Japanese,   'Hindoos,    etc.)    as 


8         The:  Yexlow  Immigration 

there  are  White  men  in  the  world  and 
ten  times  as  many  as  there  are  White 
men  in  the  United  States.  A  large  share 
of  the  Yellow  men  are  crowded  into 
densely  over-populated  areas  in  Eastern 
and  Southeastern  Asia,  living  in  abject 
poverty  under  social  and  political  condi- 
tions unknown  in  the  Western  Hemis- 
phere. In  no  other  portions  of  Asia  are 
there  sufficient  unoccupied  and  desirable 
lands  to  support  these  surplus  and  needy 
millions  of  Yellow  men.  On  this  side 
of  the  earth,  and  to  a  considerable  ex- 
tent in  the  United  States,  are  vast  areas 
of  vacant  and  sparsely  settled  lands, 
fertile  and  with  climatic  conditions  of 
the  best. 

Until  very  recent  times  natural  bar- 
riers— oceans,  mountains,  deserts,  incon- 
veniences of  travel  and  transportation — 
combined  with  racial  hostilities  and  dis- 
tinctions, have  tended,  in  the  mrn,  to 
keep  aloof  the  Yellow  and  the  White 
man.  But  modern  methods  of  travel 
and  communication  have  surmounted 
such  barriers  and  have  bridged  dis- 
tances so  tjhat  practically  thev  are  neigh- 
bors. 

As  for  the  ethnic  phase :  Naturalists 
assert  that  every  member  of  each  of  he 
five    great    types    of    men,    migrations 


The;  YEUvOw  Immigration        9 

aside,  is  born  in  a  distinct  zoological 
realm.  As  declared  by  Professor  A.  H. 
Keame,  author  of  "Man  Past  and  Pres- 
ent," the  human  varieties  "are  the  out- 
come of  their  several  environments. 
They  are  what  climate,  soil,  diet,  purr 
suits  and  inherited  characteristics  have 
made  of  them.  So  that  all  sudd'en  transi- 
tions are  usually  followed  by  disastrous 
results."  Through  evolution  in  habi- 
tats under  action  and  reaction  of  the 
laws  of  heredity  and  environment  each 
great  type  has  developed  its  own  char- 
acteristics and  civilization.  This  is  Na- 
ture's first  law  regarding  the  genesis  of 
man. 

The  amalgamation  of  any  two  great 
types  of  men  produces  offspring  inferior 
to  the  normal  development  of  the  higher 
race  and  incapacitated  to  sustain  the 
best  characteristics  and  powers  of  the 
lower  type.  This  is  demonstrated  b) 
Herbert  Sp-encer  and  other  physicists, 
and  is  apparent  to  the  ordinary  ob- 
server. This  is  Nature's  second  law  oi 
the  genesis  of  man. 

It  is  folly  to  imagine  that  this  coun- 
try by  a  "melting  pot"  process  can  gen- 
erate out  of  diverse  types  a  new  arid  su- 
perior type  of  man.     Such  an  amalga- 


io       The:  Yexlow  Immigration 

mation  would  mean  mongrelism,  the  de- 
struction of  the  Republic,  and'  the  doom 
of  progressive  civilization. 

One-tenth  of  the  population  of  this 
country  (mainland)  are  negroes.  And 
by  race  fusion  one-third  of  these  negroes 
are  of  mixed  white  and  black  parentage, 
or  descent.  Where  any  two  great  types 
of  men  live  in  the  same  area  this  blood 
•mingling  goes  on — regardless  of  social 
or  political  conditions,  or  marriage  laws 
even.  Millions  of  Yellow-type  people 
will  seek  to  gain  entrance  here  in  no 
distant  future,  and  unless  debarred  ad- 
mittance, the  inevitable  results  of  their 
presence  would  follow. 


TWO. 

For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury following  the  beginning,  in  i860, 
of  Chinese  immigration,  and  the  conse- 
quent presence  in  our  Pacific  Slope 
areas,  from  year  to  year,  of  one  hundred 
thousand  or  more  of  Chinese  coolies, 
unceasing  appeals  were  made  to  Con- 
gress for  an  Exclusion  Act,  arid  frequent 
anti-Chinese  riots  took  place.  The  en- 
tire nation  discussed  the  "Chinese 
question/' 

Finally,  in  1888,  a  treaty  was  made 
with  China  providing  for  the  future  ex- 
clusion of  all  Chinese  except  "govern- 
ment officials,  teachers,  students,  mer- 
chants, or  travelers  for  pleasure  or  cu- 
riosity," which  policy  has  been  contin- 
uously maintained. 

The  number  of  Chinese  now  in  this 
country  (mainland)  is  officially  stated 
to  be  less  than  one  hundre'd  thousand. 
But  this  statement  is  often  disputed  and 
the  claim  is  made  that  the  present  Chi- 
nese population  is  much  greater  than 
that,  even  more  than  before  the  treaty 
was  made.  The  presence  in  many  cities 
of  the  East,  as  well  as  in  the  Pacific 
Slope,    of    great    numbers    of    Chinese 


12       Thk  Yellow  Immigration 

many  years  too  young  to  have  been  born 
in  this  country,  emphasizes  the  state- 
ments often  made  by  Federal  officials 
that  in  innumerable  ways  our  Chinese 
Exclusion  laws  are  being  constantly 
evaded. 

From  the  presence  of  a  comparatively 
small  number  of  Chinese  great  evils 
arose  in  our  industrial  system,  and  it  is 
evident  if  our  exclusion  policy  against 
them  is  relaxed  or  abandoned  millions 
of  China's  surplus  population  will  eagerly 
seek  permanent  homes  here  and  become 
a  menace  to  the  White  race  and  to  West- 
ern civilization. 

Prior  to  ten  years  ago  few  Japanese 
came  to  this  country.  Roughly  esti- 
mated their  number  in  1909  was  offi- 
cially given  as  about  one  hundred  thou- 
sand in  the  Continental  United  States, 
but  this  estimate  is  claimed  to  be  not 
nearly  large  enough.  Whether  their 
number  is  now  decreasing  or  increasing 
is  vehemently  disputed.  Unlike  the 
Chinese  the  Japanese  often  bring  their 
families  and  are  generally  desirous  of 
becoming  permanent  residents  and  citi- 
zens. 

Strenuous  objections  against  the  Ja- 
panese are  maintained    on    the    Pacific 


This  Yellow  Immigration       13 

Slope,  even  more  pronounced,  in  some 
ways  than  those  put  forth  against  the 
Chinese.  The  Japanese  are  not  merely 
wage  competitors  with  the  White  lab- 
orers, but  they  are  competitors  with  the 
White  farmers  in  the  possession,  by 
lease  or  otherwise,  of  considerable  areas 
of  the  choicest  fruit  lands  of  that  region, 
and  to  a  great  extent  control  that  indus- 
try, and  are  dangerous  competitors  in 
many  forms  of  commercial  enterprises 
also.  Their  unassimilable  ways  of  life, 
building  up  in  many  places  in  country, 
towns  and  cities  centres  of  Oriental  civ- 
ilzation,  are  hostile  and  fatal  to  Ameri- 
can institutions ;  and  are  most  strongly 
denounced  by  the  people  and  press  of 
the  Far  West  states. 

The  alien,  non-landing  holding,  and 
the  Segregation  acts  sought  to  be  passed 
by  several  of  the  Pacific  states;  the  San 
Francisco  school  difficulty  about  Ja- 
panese pupils  in  schools  there,  becoming 
matters  of  international  importance,  and 
demanding  the  intervention  of  the  past 
and  the  present  Federal  Administration 
at  Washington,  are  recent  and  well- 
known  symptoms  of  the  trouble  that  will 
not  clown  between  the  White  men  of  the 
Pacific  Slope  and  the  Japanese  resi- 
dents    there.       And    thus,    the    "JaPan" 


14       The  Yellow  Immigration 

ese  Question, "  one  phase  merely  of  the 
problem  of  Asiatic  immigration,  looms 
up  prodigous,  circling  on  our  Western 
confines  and  out  over  the  bosom  of  the 
Pacific  like  a  world'  eruptive  cyclone  of 
war. 


THREE. 

In  Japan  the  birth  rate  largely  ex- 
ceeds the  death  rate.  Every  year  about 
seven  hundred  thousand  round  faced, 
slant-eyed  babies  there  bloom  forth  into 
light  and  life  in  excess  of  the  number 
of  weary,  pallid'  humans  who  fade  away 
into  the  'darkness  and  so-called  nothing- 
ness O'f  death.  The  total  area  of  Japan 
is  about  equal  to  two-thirds  of  the  area 
of  California,  but  only  one-sixth  of  this 
area,  equal  to  the  combined  size  of  New 
Hampshire  and  Vermont,  is  tillable  land 
— on  which  must  be  raised  food  for 
fifty  millions  of  people.  Where  is  this 
rapidly  increasing  surplus  population  of 
Japan  to  find  dwelling  place  and  susten- 
ance ? 

The  combined  area  of  Japan,  Korea, 
and  the  Chinese  Empire  and  India 
makes  up  about  one-tenth  of  the  land' 
area  of  the  globe,  and  therein  dwell 
one-half  the  population  of  the  earth. 
Large  areas  of  China  and  Iridia  have  a 
density  population  per  square  mile  of 
fully  five  'hundred  people ;  and  Japan  has 
at  least  an  average  population  per  square 
mile  of  three  hundred  and  thirty. 

The    average    population    per    square 


1 6       The:  Yeuw>w  Immigration 

mile  of  the  United  States,  exclusive  of 
Alaska,  is  one  hundred  and  twenty-two; 
and  the  three  States  of  Washington, 
Oregon  and  California,  containing  a 
total  population  of  three  millions,  have 
an  average  per  square  mile  population 
of  nine  persons  only.  Between  the  peo- 
ple of  this  Pacific  Slope  of  ours  and  the 
needy  seven  hundred  and1  fifty  millions 
of  people  above  named  rolls  th  easily 
traversed  waters  of  the  Pacific. 

How  long  will  Japan  with  her  crowd- 
ed millions  of  surplus  people,  war-like, 
ambitious,  vivified  by  the  pulse  of  mod- 
ern progress  and  invention,  and  by 
successful  warfare,  be  content  to  be 
held  confined  within  such  narrow  and 
congested  limits? 

There  is  no  room  for  this  surplus 
population  of  Japan  in  Asia.  China 
with  a  population  eight  times  greater 
than  Japan,  also  awakened  to  the  need- 
and  power  of  modern  civilization,  can 
not  firid  in  all  the  Asiatic  mainland 
room  for  the  necessities  and  develop- 
ment of  her  own  people.  The  nomin- 
ally Chinese  province  of  Manchuria 
has  an  average  population  of  seventy 
per  square  mile;  and1  it  is  to  a  great  ex- 
tent  commercially   and    otherwise    con- 


The:  YfXU)w  Immigration       17 

trolled  by  Russia  and  Japan,  and  all  the 
Western  Powers,  including  our  own 
country,  are  seeking  to  exploit  or  pos- 
sess these  areas. 

Siberia  to  the  Northward,  the  natural 
outlet  for  China's  development,  is  held 
by  the  White  Empire  of  Russia.  India 
crowded  to  the  starvation  point  offers 
no  field  for  Japanese  or  Chinese  devel- 
opment, and  the  regions  beyond  the 
Himalayas  to  the  West  and  Northwest 
are  for  the  most  part  occupied  or  im- 
possible of  conquest  and  utilization  by 
either  or  these  natons. 

The  white  nations  have  partitioned 
anion?  themselves  all  Africa,  except  the 
Moorish  States  on  the  Mediterranean, 
and  they  guard  all  access  to  any  desir- 
able areas  in  the  interior  of  the  Dark 
Continent.  If  the  Yellow  man  seeks  an 
outlet  in  Africa  he  will  have  to  fight 
the  Whites  and  exterminate  the  Blacks. 

There  remains  in  the  Eastern  Hemi- 
sphere only  the  island  areas  of  the  In- 
dian and  Pacific  Oceans — the  Malayan 
group,  New  Guinea,  Borneo,  the  Philip- 
pines, Australia,  New  Zealand,  and  the 
small  and  far  off  isles  of  the  Mid  and 
West  Pacific,  including  Hawaii.  In  all 
of  these  no  adequate    relief    could    be 


1 8       The  Yellow  Immigration 

found  for  the  dire  need  of  Asiatics  even 
if  it  were  possible  to  wrest  them  from 
White  control.  Nothing  is  left,  there- 
fore, for  the  Yellow  man  but  the  vast 
and  unoccupied  or  sparsely  settled  areas 
across  the  Pacific  in  North  and  South 
America.  Here  is  the  outlet  the  Yellow 
races  must  inevitably  strive  to  acquire, 
either  by  industrial  or  warlike  invasion 
— and  the  industrial  invasion  has  been 
for  some  time  in  progress. 


FOUR. 

Gladstone  said,  "the  Chinaman  is 
penalized  for  his  virtues/' — referring  to 
industrial  characteristics  merely.  As  a 
wage  worker  his  tireless  industry, 
ceaseless  patience,  and  almost  universal! 

•Captation  to  diverse  climes  and  em- 
loyments,  coupled  with  his  frugal 
abits  and  low  standard  of  living,  en- 
bles  him  to  underbid  the  White  work- 
lan.  The  Chinese  merchant  also,  pos- 
sessing similar  "virtues/'  can  undersell 
the  White  merchant  in  many  places. 

The  situation  in  Hawaii  illustrates 
the  effect  of  unchecked  Asiatic  immi- 
gration. Hawaii,  the  "Outpost  Isle  of 
the  Sea,"  was  acquired  in  order  to  pro- 
tect our  Pacific  Coast  from  possible  ag- 
gression from  any  Asiatic  or  other 
power.  In  1900  the  population  was  one 
hundred  and  fifty- four  thousand,  one- 
fourth  of  which  was  native  or  half- 
breed  Hawaian,  another  fourth  mixed 
European,  and  the  remaining  half 
Asiatic,  mostly  Japanese  and  Chinese. 
There  were  forty-four  thousand'  Japa- 
nese males  over  the  age  of  eighteen 
years  included  in  this  enumeration. 
The   Report   of    the    Department    of 


20       The:  Yellow  Immigration 

Commerce  and  Labor  for  189S6  cited 
the  views  of  the  Honolulu  Merchants' 
Association,  wherein  it  was  said,  "this 
country  has  been  inundated  with  an  in- 
flux of  Asiatic  population  that  threatens 
to  ^undermine  its  political  security  as 
far  as  the  ascendency  and  control  of 
the  White  race  is  concerned." 

And  to  this  declaration  the  repo: 
mentioned  above  added.  'The  two  n 
tionalities  differ  in  race,  and  their  hi 
tory  and  traditions  have  nothing  in  com- 
mon. They  differ  widely  in  their  ex- 
perience of  political  institutions.  They 
differ  radically  in  their  spiritual  ideals 
and1  their  religious  beliefs.  They  differ 
wholly  in  their  moral  and  social  con- 
ventions, their  philosophy  of  life,  and  in 
their  habits  of  thought."  *  *  *  "The 
second  generation  of  Asiatics,  therefore, 
however  much  in  such  a  community 
they  may  conform  to  American  business 
customs,  remain  alien  in  thought  and 
sympathy." 

The  Japanese  especially  have  driven 
out  the  Whites  from  various  lines  of 
commerce  and  industry,  even  where 
caoital  amd  technical  skill  is  essential. 
"The  flowing  out  of  the  Caucasian  pop- 
ulation almost  as  rapidly    as    it    is    re- 


Ha 

rive 


Thk  Yixlow  Immigration       21 

cruite'd  is  one  of  the  most  serious  prob- 
lems," declares  the  Report  of  the  Immi- 
gration Commission  submitted  to  Con- 
gress in  December  last. 

The    Stars    and    Stripes     float     over 
Hawaii,    but   practically    Hawaii     is     an 
prientai   possession,    industrially    domi- 
ted  by  Asiatics. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  globe,  almost 
ectly  beneath  the  volcanic  base  of 
awaii,  lies  the  Island  of  Mauritius, 
ive  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  the 
East  coast  of  Africa,  the  "Half-way 
House,,  between  the  Yellow  and  Dark 
Continent.  For  three  hundred  years 
settled  and  controlled  in  turn  by  Dutch, 
French,  and  English  peoples,  it  is  to- 
day, iiinder  the  flag  of  Great  Britain,  by 
reason  of  Asiatic  immigration  and  coin- 
Detition,  an  Oriental  colony.  .  Great 
Britain  with  her  mighty  navy  can  there 
preserve  political  authority.  But  it  is 
now  in  the  power  of  Japan,  if  she  de- 
sires, to  take  possession  of  Hawaii  — 
and,  in  such  case,  in  fhe  tropic  sunlight, 
there  on  so-called  American  soil,  thou- 
sands of  Japanese  swords  would  flash  out 
welcome  and  allegiance  to  the  Mikado. 


FIVE. 

Wherever  Chinese  and  Japanese  are 
allowed  to  enter  and  compete  in  trade 
and  industry  with  native  or  with  Whites 
in  'any  of  the  European  possessions  and 
dependencies  in  the  Eastern  Hemisphere, 
such  as  the  Federated  Malay  States. 
the  Straits  Settlements,  the  islands  pi 
New  Guinea,  Borneo,  etc.,  the  invar  lab' J* 
result  is  that  they  lower  the  wage  star.i 
ard  of  White  Laborers  and  undermine  the 
White  merchants  and  tradesmen,  and,  if 
uninterrupted,  gain  possession  of  the 
entire  field. 

Baron  Alexander  Von  Huber,  former 
Ambassador  to  France,  after  a  trip 
around  the  world  in  1885  declared'  in  a 
public  address  in  Vienna  that  the  Chi- 
nese were  supplanting  the  European 
wherever  the  races  were  brought  togeth- 
er, and  detailed  numerous  and  unques- 
tionable instances  of  such  facts. 

In  a  recent  work  entitled  "The  Mast- 
ery of  the  Pacific,"  by  Colquhon,  the 
author  referring  comprehensively  to  the 
condition  in  the  Federated  Malay  States, 
the  Stra;ts  Settlements,  the  city  and 
port    of     Singapore,     etc.,    shows    "the 


p 


g 


Thk  Yellow  Immigration       23 

significant  development  there  in  the 
gradually  encroaching  wealth,  power  and 
number  of  Chinese  there." 

The  disastrous  effects  of  industrial 
and  commercial  competition  between  the 
Yellow  and  the  W'hite  races  are  every- 
where seen  when  they  come  in  contact  in 
he  Old  World.  By  sheer  peristence 
fie  Yellow  tide  undermines  the  White 
[ivilization. 

Since  the  American  domination  over 
the  Ph:4ippines  many  army  and  civil  of- 
ficials there  in  command  have  officially 
re-ported  against  the  presence  of  Chi- 
nese in  that  Archipelago.  General  Mc- 
Arthur,  as  military  governor  of  t.iose 
islands  declared,  "such  a  people,  largely 
endowed  as  they  are  with  inexhaustible 
fortitude  and  determination,  if  admitted 
to  the  archipelago  in  any  considerable 
numbers  during  the  formative  period 
which  is  now  in  process  of  evolution 
would  scon  -have  direct  or  indirect  con- 
trol of  pretty  nearly  every  -productive 
interest,  to  the  absolute  exclusion  alike 
of  Filipinos  arfd  Amercians." 

Great  evils  arose  from  Chinese  im- 
migration and  competition  in  the  islands 
all  through  the  Spanish  occupancy  of 
the  same.     At  the  present  time  the  Chi- 


24       The  Yellow  Immigration 

nese  exclusion  laws  have  been  extended 
to  the  Philippines ;  but  Secretary  Strauss 
recommended  a  change  in  that  policy  as 
far  as  those  islands  were  concerned,  and 
there  is  a  persistent  demand  from 
monopolistic  interests  for  the  leintroduc- 
tion  of  Chinese  labor  there. 

The  Australian  Colonies  have  constant- 
ly  sought   to   exclude  Asiatics.      In   th^ 
earlier     days     their     exclusion     statute: 
were  directed  against  Chinese,  and  eacl 
Chinaman  on  landing  there  had  to  pay 
i  poll  tax.  in  many  instances  as  high  as 
me  hundred  pounds  sterling;  and  strict 
tonnage  taxes  and  supervision    of    ves- 
-  -Is  bringing  them  were  enforced.    Later 
Dii  when  the  Japanese  and  other  Asiatics 
egan  to  seek  entrance  the  statutes  ran 
:,i  some  of  the  Colonies  against  the  ad- 
mission of  all  "Asiatics,"  and  the  word' 
'   \siatic"    was    defined    to    mean    "any 
"  vtive  of  any  part  of  Asia,  or  the  islands 
Ijacent  to  Asia  or  in  Asiatic  seas,  and 
"  e   descendants   of   such   natives;"  but 
•  d  not  include  persons  of  European  or 
wish  extraction,  nor  Hindoos. 
More  recently  all  these   Colonies  en- 
ted  an  educational  or  "illiteracy"  test 
iuiring  every  male  adult  immigrant  to 
L :  able  to  read  attd  write  in  some  Euro- 


\> 


I 


The:  Ykw>w  Immigration       25 

p?an  language,  the  effect  of  which  ex- 
cludes nearly  all  Japanese  and  other 
Asiatics.  This  requirement  wias  adbpt- 
ed  by  the  Commonwealth  of  Australia 
when  the  Colonies  became  federated,  and 
is  now  the  law  of  the  Australian  Con- 
tinent. Such  an  "illiteracy"  test  if 
adopted  here  woul'd  check,  for  a  time  at 
least,  Asiatic  immigration  and  shut  out 
much  undesirable  immigration  from 
Europe. 


SIX. 

The  Asiatic    exclusion    laws    of    the 
Australian    Colonies,   and    now    of    the 
Commonwealth    of  Australia    itself,    had! 
back   of   them     the    'universal     determi- 
nation   of    the  people  to  preserve  there 
;the      A-nglo-iSlaxon     civilization.       The  j^ 
Asiatic   exclusion   of    New  Zealand    omj 
1885    declared    its    purpose     to  be    "to* 
safeguard  the  race  purity  of  the  people 
of   New  Zealand  by  preventing  the  in- 
flux of  persons  of  an  alien   race. 

"It  is  our  d'uty",  declared  Sir  Henry 
Parks,  Lieutenant  Governor  of  New 
South  Wales,  in  tan  address  in  1888  be- 
fore the  Immigration  Conference  of 
representatives  of  all  the  Australian 
Colonies,  "to  preserve  the  type  of  the 
British  Nation,  and  we  ought  not  for  any 
consideration  whatever  to  admit  »any  ele- 
ment that  would  detract  from,  or  any 
appreciable  degree  lower  that  admir- 
able type  of  nationality." 

"We  should  not  encourage  or  admit 
amongst  us  any  class  of  persons 
whatever  whom  we  are  not  prepared' 
to  advance  to  all  our  franchises,  to 
all  our    privileges  as    citizens,    and    all 


The:  Yexu>w  Immigration       27 

our  social  rights,  including  the  right 
of  marriage.  I  maintain  that  no  class 
of  persons  should  be  admitted  here,  so 
far  as  we  can  reasonably  exclude  chem 
who  can  not  come  amongst  us,  take 
up  all  our  rights,  perform  on  a  ground 
of  equality  »all  our  duties,  and  share  in 
our  august  and  lofty  work  of  foundL 
ing   a   free   nation. " 

"We  can  not  patiently  stand  to  be 
treated1  with  the  frozen  indifference  of 
persons  who  consider  some  'petty  quar- 
rel in  a  petty  state  of  more  importance 
than  the  gigantic  interests  of  these 
magnificent   colonies." 

"Neither  for  Her  Majesty's  ships, 
nor  for  Her  Majesty's  representatives 
on  the  spot,  nor  for  the  Secretary  of 
State  for  the  Colonies,  do  we  intend  to 
turn  aside  from  our  purpose,  which  is 
to  terminate  the  landing  of  Chinese  on 
these  shores  forever,  except  under  the 
restrictions  imposed  by  the  Bill,  which 
will  amount,  and  which  are  intended  to 
amount  to  practical  prohibition." 

And  this  was  not  said  in  a  spirit  of 
detraction  as  regards  the  Chinese,  for  he 
adds,  "The  Chinese  are  a  superior  peo- 
ple. The  influx  of  a  few  million  of  Chi- 
nese would  entirely    change    the    char- 


28       The  Yexlow  Immigration 

acter  of  the  Australian  Commonwealth. 
I  wish  to  preserve  the  type  of  my  own 
nation  in  these  far  countries." 

The  British  Crown  has  power  to  ap- 
prove or  disapprove  of  measures  en- 
acte'd  by  the  colonial  legislatures  af- 
fecting the  relations  or  intercourse  of 
such  colonies  with  foreign  nations.  At 
first  Royal  assent  to  the  exclusion  laws 
of  the  Australian  Colonies  was  with- 
held. But  there  arose  from  the  mass  of 
the  people  all  through  the  Colonies, 
from  the  legislative  and  civic  bodies 
everywhere,  and  even  from  the  gov- 
ernors of  the  Colonies  placed  there  by 
the  Crown,  such  out-spoken  and1  deter- 
mined opposition  and  defiance  to  the 
Imperial  policy  that  Royal  Assent  was 
finally  given  to  such  measures — for  to 
refuse  such  assent  would  have,  in  all 
probability,  resulted  in  the  withdrawal 
of  the  Colonies  from  the  British  Em- 
pire itself. 

It  is  evident  that  the  Yellow  Man  can 
not,  except  by  force  of  arms,  gain  ac- 
cess to  the  vast  and  vacant  areas  of 
Australia. 

The  mysterious  alliance,  on  paper,  at 
least,  between  Great  Britain  and  Japan 
has  back  of  it,  no  doubt,  the  anxiety  of 


The  YexivOw  Immigration      29 

the  Mother  Country  to  conserve  and1 
guartl'  her  White  Colonies  from  en- 
croachments on  part  of  puissant  Japan. 


SEVEN. 

When  the  Dutch  Burghers  migrated 
to  South  Africa,  and,  from  time  to  time 
with  their  families  and  household  goods 
loaded  on  wagons,  driving:  their  flocks 
and  herd  along,  "treked"  back  into  the 
Veldt  so  as  to  be  by,  themselves,  no  Yel- 
low man  appeared  within  their  horizon. 

But  later  on,  by  reason  of  the  coming 
into  the  Transvaal  of  Chinese,  East 
Indians  (Hindoos)  strenuous  Asiatic 
restriction  laws  were  passed.  The 
"Volksraad  Resolution"  of  1885  denied 
to  Asiatics  the  right  to  own  lands,  re- 
quired all  those  doing  a  trading  busi- 
ness to  register;  and  to  pay  twenty-five 
pounds  sterling  for  a  registration  cer- 
tificate;  and'  provided  various  segrega- 
tion and  "bazaar"  laws  against  them. 
These  rigorous  provisions  were  some- 
what relaxed  during  a  portion  of  the 
Kruger  Adminstration,  but  under  the 
British  rule  similar  enactments,  includ- 
ing Hindoos  of  High  and'  Low  caste 
alike  were  made;  and  thumb-print 
identification  marks  required  to  be  made 
on  such  certificates  issued  to  them. 
This  policy    brought    great    dissatisfac- 


The:  Yellow  Immigration       31 

tion  not  only  among  the  East  Indians 
in  South  Africa  but  in  India  itself. 

But  as  Sir  Arthur  Lawley,  Lieuten- 
ant Governor  of  the  Transvaal,  in  an 
official  communication  to  His  Majesty's 
Government,  in  1904,  declared — "It  is 
true  that  the  British  Government  have 
laid  down  'that  there  shall  not  be  in  the 
eye  of  the  law  any  distinction  or  dis- 
qualification whatever  founded  on  mere 
distinction  of  colour,  origin,  language, 
or  creed';  but  the  history  of  South 
Africa  has  been  such  as  to  set  up  an  im- 
passable barrier  between  the  European 
and  the  coloured  races." 

"The  problem  does  not  begin  and  end 
with  a  shop  keeper's  quarrel,  but  is  more 
far  reaching  than  the  question  whether 
this  country  shall  be  governed  by  Eng- 
lishmen or  Boers."  *  *  *  *  "It  is 
really  prompted  by  the  instinct  of  pres- 
ervation in  the  minds  of  the  European 
trading  community." 

A*t  one  time  in  the  Transvaal  Chinese 
coolies  were  brought  in  under  a  strict 
indenture  system  and  kept  at  close  con- 
finement at  work  in  the  Rand  gold 
mines,  but  they  have  now  all  been  sent 
back  to  China  and  the  most  rigorous 
Asiatic   exclusion    laws,    including    the 


32       The  Yellow  Immigration 

educational  or  "illiteracy"  test,  now 
prevail  in  all  of  the  British  South  Afri- 
can Colonies. 

Until  within  recent  years  the  colony 
of  Natal  permitted  East  Indians  to  come 
there  under  the  indenture  system,  and  at 
the  expiration  of  the  indenture  time  al- 
lowed them  to  remain.  In  consequence 
of  this  policy  Natal  was  long  called  "the 
Back  Door"  of  Africa,  becaiuse  these 
East  Indians  (Hindoos)  were  wont  to 
stray  over  into  the  other  Colonies  of 
South  Africa.  These  East  Indians  be- 
came numerous  and  prosperous;  but 
their  lower  standard  of  living  proved 
disastrous  to  the  Whites.  Their  sta- 
tus was  such  that  they  could  do  prac- 
tically anything  that  an  Englishman 
could  do,  skilled  labor,  clerical  work, 
and  the  operation  of  factories,  etc.  In 
this  way  Natal  became  to  a  great  ex- 
tent "Orientalized."  As  described  by 
Sir  Arthur  Lawley  in  an  official  dis- 
patch in  1904,  "so  prevalent  is  the  In- 
d'ian  element  in  that  country  (Natal) 
that  the  moment  one  crosses  the  Trans- 
vaal border  he  loses  the  impression  that 
he  is  traveling  in  an  European  country 
at  all." 


EIGHT. 

In  1885  the  Dominion  of  Canada 
passed  a  law  requiring  every  Chinese 
immigrant  to  pay  a  head  tax  of  fifty 
dollars,  and  in  1896  this  tax  was  in- 
creased to  five  hundred  dollars.  But 
treaty  relations  between  the  British  Gov- 
ernment and1  Japan  do  not  permit  Can- 
ada to  place  restrictions  upon  Japanese 
immigration. 

Conditions  due  to  such  immigration 
in  the  Pacific  sections  of  the  Canadian 
Dominion,  especially,  have  arisen  simi- 
lar to  those  in  the  Pacific  Slope  of  the 
United  States.  Restrictive  lesislation 
on  part  of  some  of  the  Canadian  Prov- 
inces applicable  to  Japanese  and  other 
Asiatics  in  their  several  areas  has  been 
passed;  protests  and  petitions  in  great 
numbers  against  such  immigration  have 
been  presented  to  the  Ottawa  Govern- 
ment, and  riots  and  hostile  acts  against 
members  of  those  races  have  taken 
place  on  several  occasions. 

For  ten  years  or  more  the  legislative 
assembly  of  British  Columbia  passed 
various  labor  regulations  providing 
that  no  Chinese  or   Japanese    should  be 


34       The:  Yellow  Immigration 

employed  on  any  public  works,  or  that 
ever}7;  workman  employed  on  such  works 
should  be  able  to  read  in  soim 
European  language. 

Sanction  to  each  of  these  Acts  has 
been  successively  refused'  by  the  Ex- 
ecutive authority  of  the  Dominion  Gov- 
ernment, and  the  Imperial  Government 
of  Great  Britain,  itself,  has  officially 
remonstrated  with  the  authorities  of 
British  Columbia  against  the  enactment 
of  such  measures.  Nevertheless,  year 
after  year,  that  province  has  defiantly 
enacted  such  Acts — so  irresistible  has 
been  the  sentiment  of  the  people  there 
against  the  immigration  and  presence  of 
Asiatics. 

The  Report  of  the  Royal  Commis- 
sion on  Chinese  and  Japanese  Immi- 
gration, filed  in  1902,  says,  "All  that  has 
been  said  in  this  regard  with  reference 
to  the  Chinese  applies  with  eqfual,  if  not 
greater  force,  to  the  Japanese."  *  *  * 
"The  consensus  of  opinion  of  the  peo- 
ple of  British  Columbia  is  that  they  lo 
not  and'  can  not  assimilate  with  White 
people,  and  that  while  in  some  respects 
they  are  less  undesirable  than  the  Chi- 
nese, in  that  they  adopt  more  readily  our 
habits  of  life  and  spend  more  of  their 


The:  Yeux»w  Immigration       35 

earnings  in  this  country,  yet  in  all  that 
goes  to  make  for  the  permanent  settle- 
ment of  the  couotryi  they  are  quite  as 
serious  a  menance  as  the  Chinese  and 
keener  competitors  against  working- 
men,  and  as  they  have  more  energy, 
push  and  independence,  more  dangerous 
in  this  regard  than  the  Chinese." 

In  1902  Great  Britain  secured  from 
the  Mikado  a  "Restrictive  Agreement" 
regudating  the  migration  of  Japanese 
laborers  to  Canada.  Later  on,  when 
the  influx  of  Japanese  immigration  was 
renewed1,  to  petitions,  protests  and  anti- 
Japanese  legislation  on  part  of  the 
Western  Provinces  of  Canada,  there 
followed  at  Vancouver  and  other  places 
riots  and  life  destroying  assaults  upon 
both  Japanese  and  Hindoos.  At  the 
same  time  at  Bellingham,  and  at  other 
places  on  the  American  side  of  the  line 
the  White  men  there  maltreated'  and 
murdered  their  Yellow  brothers  because 
of  the  undesired  presence,  debasing 
competition,  and  Oriental  ways  that  do 
not  fit  in  with  a  White  Man's  civiliza- 
tion. 

This  fact  stands  out,  regardless  of  all 
industrial  and1  social  differences,  wher- 
ever around  the   world  the  Wihite  and 


36       The  Yellow  Immigration 

Yellow  man  attempt  to  live  in  the  same 
habitat,  they  disagree — and  they  can't 
help  it. 


NINE, 

Samuel  Tilden  once  said,  "The  Mon- 
roe Doctrine  might  be  a  good  thing  if 
any  one  could  find  out  what  it  was." 

The  Monroe  Doctrine  has  been  ia  grad- 
ual growth,  a  political  evolution.  It  has 
potencies  sufficient  to  protect,  if  need 
be,  the  soil  and  institutions  of  the  New 
World  from  encroachments  by  any 
European  power,  and  to  prevent  the 
establishment  in  the  New  World  of  any 
Oriental  civilization. 

Some  of  the  South  American  repub- 
lics, and  even  our  neighbor  Mexico,  are 
granting  lands  to  Asiatics  for  coloniza- 
tion, and  are  opening  to  them  industrial 
opportunities  and  resources.  In  a 
purely  industrial  way  important  areas 
may  thus  become  "Orientalized"  if  un- 
restricted migration  of  Asiatics  should 
be  long  continued 

In  a  militant  way  also  what  is  to  hin- 
der Japan,  for  instance,  if  she  sees  fit, 
from  securing  political  control  or  pos- 
session of  some  South  American  areas. 
It  would  be  easy  for  her  to  pick  a  quar- 
rel with  some  one  of  these  republics; 
to  bombard  its  ports,  to  sieze  its  coast 
cities,  or  even  to  invade  the  mainland 


38       The  Yexlow  Immigration 

and  entrench  its  forces  there.  Japan 
might  readily  enough  ally  herself,  more- 
over, with  some  one  of  the  contending 
factions  that  are  sometimes  waring 
upon  each  other  in  some  of  these  tc- 
puiblics  in  South  or  Central  America,  or 
even  in  Mexico,  and  dominate  peoples 
and  civilizations  there.  The  filling  up 
of  such  areas  with  millions  of  Japanese 
and  erecting  an  Asiatic  civilization 
might  follow  therefrom. 

Count  Okama,  an  important  progres- 
sive leader  in  Japan,  in  1907,  said  that 
Japanese  -migration  should  be  directed 
towards  the  coasts  of  Chili,  Peru  and 
Mexico,  rather  than  to  Brazil,  because 
the  countries  named  were  much  easier 
"to  include  within  the  sphere  of  the  in- 
fluence of  Japan  in  the  future ;"  and  he 
added  the  specific  declaration  that  the 
"military  and  naval  forces  of  Japan  are 
not  for  ornament,  but  for  use,  and  that 
the  west  coast  of  South  America  is  with- 
in our  sphere  of  influence. "  Similar  as- 
sertions have  been  made  by  other  Jap- 
anese statesmen,  and  the  attitude  of  the 
Japanese  Government  in  many  w.ays 
manifests  that  policy. 

Baron  Kiyoura,  ex-minister  of  ag- 
riculture and  commerce  of  Japan,  in  a 


Ths  Yeux>w  Immigration       39 

magazine  article  some  three  years  ago, 
declared  himself  to  be  in  favor  of 
changing  the  insular  habit  and  sentiment 
o,f  the  Japanese  people  so  that  Japan 
might  become  a  world  power,  andl  to 
that  end  he  favored  the  selection  of 
South  America  as  a  site  for  colonial  enr 
terprise,  and  said  it  "would  offer  a  fruit- 
ful field  for  our  exploitation,  for  in  that 
country  there  is  no  keen  competition, 
nor  any  particular  anti-Asiatic  fever 
such  .as  one  finds  on  the  Pacific  Coast 
of  North  America.  Hostility  toward 
immigration  in  general,  and  against  the 
yellow  race  in  particular,  does  not  seem 
to  exist  in  those  roomy  states  of  South 
America."  And  he  urged  the  establish- 
ment of  a  line  of  Japanese  steamships 
to  run  to  South  American  ports  as  a 
means  to  such  end ;  all  of  which  has  been 
done. 

Which  is  the  wiser  policy,  to  tempo- 
rize with  the  trend  of  events  that  lead 
to  the  irresistible  conclusion  that  Ori- 
ental races  and  civilizations,  peacefully 
if  they  can,  forcibly  if  they  must,  will 
seek  lodgment  in  and  control  of  areas 
in  the  Western  Hemisphere,  or  to  say 
at  once,  "This  side  of  the  globe  shall 
remain  white!" 


TBN. 

It  is  often  sai'ds  that  our  trade  relations 
with  the  East  are  dependent  upon  our 
free  maintenance  of  Asiatic  immigra- 
tion to  this  country.  In  the  early  colo- 
nial days  it  was  urged  that  trade  with 
Africa  and  the  West  Indies  demanded 
the  bringing  into  this  country  of  African 
slaves.  All  the  world  knows  the  results 
of  that  dc-ctrine  and  that  practice. 

Trade  between  this  country  and  Great 
Britain,  or  France,  or  Germany,  be- 
tween nations  of  like  civilization,  does 
and  alwiays  will  surpass  any  possible 
trade  to  be  gained  with  Oriental  coun- 
tries. The  relatively  small  commerce 
that  we  carry  on  with  China  and  Ja- 
pan is  mostly  raw  materials,  such  as 
lumber,  kerosene  oil,  iron  ores,  etc. ; 
things  which  we  need  ourselves,  or  of 
which  in  the  near  future  we  shall  need 
at  home,  and  which  even  now  we  are 
trying  to  conserve  for  the  generations 
to  come.  The  day  is  nearly  gone  when 
we  have  an  excess  of  food  products  to 
spare,  and  cotton  is  about  the  only  great 
agricultural  staple  of  which  we  can  have 
any  considerable    surplus   for  export. 

Most    of   the    other   things    we    send 


Th£  YKUvOw  Immigration       41 

there  consist  of  machinery,  equipments, 
etc.,  which  both  China  and!  Japan  are 
beginning  to  use  in  a  productive  way. 
When  the  eastern  people  have  gener- 
ally adopted  the  ways  of  the  western 
civilization,  in  dress,  diet,  and  articles 
of  pleasure  (if  they  ever  do),  they  will 
by  that  time  have  learned  to  produce 
nearly  all  those  things'  themselves  in 
their  own  countries.  China  has  unde- 
veloped1 natural  resources  of  coal,  iron 
and  other  metals,  some  of  them  equal, 
if  not  greater  than  similar  deposits 
within  the  United  States;  and  she  has 
the  cheapest  labor  in  the  world  which, 
under  western  superintendency,  is  quick 
to  adopt  and  carry  out  modern  method's. 
Japan  now  makes  a  great  share  of  the 
things  used  in  modern  civilization,  from 
the  largest  warships  to  watches.  Japan 
and  certain  places  in  China  are  likely 
to  become  the  workshop  of  the  world  in 
no  distant  future. 

The  "open  door"  is  a  door  shut  to 
American  labor;  and  the  commerce 
such  as  is  maintained  between  this  coun- 
try and  the  Orient  is,  for  the  most  part, 
conveyed  in  steamships  owned  by  Ja- 
pan and  manned  by  Asiatic  sailors.  Ja- 
pan has  d'riven  the  American  steamship 


42       The  Yellow  Immigration 

lines  from  the  Pacific,  and  she  has  gained 
the  ascendency  of  the  carrying  trade  be- 
tween the  different  ports  of  Asia  over 
the  English  and  German  lines.  This 
she  has  accomplished  by  unity  of  pur- 
pose by  her  cheaper  labor. 

A  few  years  ago  an  American  "Na- 
poleon" of  trans-continental  commerce 
so.ught  to  control  that  of  the  Pacific. 
He  undertook  to  educate  Asiatics  so 
that  they  would  eat  flour  ratner  tnan 
rice,  and  thereby  become  consumers  of 
American  wheat,  and  he  built  the  larg- 
est steamships  in  the  world  to  traverse 
the  Pacific  and  carry  American  products 
to  the  Orient.  But  the  Orientals  still 
continue  to  live  on  rice,  and  now  we 
have  but  little  surplus  wheat  to  export, 
and  nearly  all  the  trade  across  the  Pa- 
cific goes  in  Japanese  steamships.  Com- 
merce is  a  great  civilizer.  Trade  within 
the  lines  of  peace  and  good  will  is  to  be 
dtesired.  But  attempts  to  change  Ori- 
ental ways,  or  to  compete  at  home  or  in 
foreign  habitats  in  production  and  com- 
merce with  low-wage  standard  Asiatic 
laibor  under  skilled  governmental  con- 
trol, like  that  of  Japan,  is  another  prop- 
osition. 


ELEVEN. 

Against  Asiatic  immigration  to  the 
West  place  European  and  Occidental 
exploitation  of  the  East,  and  you  have 
the  status  of  world  affairs  in  view. 

"Good:  brother,  yellow  and  benighted, 
let  us  teach  you  arts  ot  peace,  of  indus- 
try, and  of  warfare !"  and  thus  breath- 
ing benedictions  the  white  man  moves 
forth  into  realms  of  the  East,  marking 
out  therein  "spheres  of  influence ;"  seeks 
to  control  seaports,  to  build  railways, 
to  dominate  trade,  and  distributes  Bi- 
bles and  gunpowder  with  assiduous  per- 
sistency. 

There  be  "Yellow  Perils"  and  "White 
Perils"  alike  in  vision.  Concerning  the 
latter  it  was  said  as  early  as  the  year 
1904,  in  an  address  made  before  the 
Harvard  University  by  Baron  Kentaro 
Kaneko,  L.  L.  D.,  a  high  official  of  the 
Japanese  Government,  "Japan  has  far 
more  reason  to  fear  a  "White  Peril"  in 
the  East  than  the  world,  or  any  part  of 
it  has  to  anticipate  danger  from  Japan. 
Observe  the  advance  of  the  European 
nations  into  Asia.  What  are  the  ex- 
tension of  French  Tonquin  and  the  oc- 
cupation   of    Kiow-Chan    by    Germany 


44       The  Yexlow  Immigration 

if  net  "White  Perils"  for  the  Chinese 
empire?  There  is  another  "White 
Peril"  for  China  on  her  borders  in 
Russian  occupation  of  Manchuria,  but 
it  is  far  more  of  a  "White  Peril"  for 
Japan.  We  recognize  it  is  a  real  and 
dangerous  menace  to  our  national  ex- 
istence, not  for  a  moment  imaginary  in 
character  like  the  "Yellow  Peril"  now 
so  much  talked  about  in  Europe  and 
America. 

But  besides  these  actual  and  militant 
invasions  and  seizures  of  areas  in  Asia 
by  Europeajn  powers,  there  has  been 
carried  on  for  some  time  by  White  Cap- 
italism an  industrial  and  troublous  in- 
vasion of  some  of  the  Eastern  Coun- 
tries in  the  guise  of  loans  of  money,  the 
building  of  railroads,  and  other  far- 
reaching  projects. 

On  this  subject  is  worthy  of  notice 
somewhat  that  appeared  in  a  Prize  Es- 
say submitted  in  1909  to  St.  John's  Col- 
lege, by  S.  U.  Wong,  a  Chinese  student, 
in  part,  as  follows : 

"A  look  at  the  competition  established 
already  in  China  shows  too  plainly  that 
although  railways  have  been  constructed 
and  developed  by  use  of  foreign  capital, 
the  power  to  direct  where  and  how  to 


Thk  Yellow  Immigration       45 

•develop  is  never  lost  sight  of  by  these 
foreigners.  Primarily  they  indeed  claim 
to  work  with  a  view  to  benefit  China ; 
but  secondly  and  incidentally  they  at- 
tempt to  snatch  what  power  they  can  to 
obtain  control  over  the  Chinese  people, 
with  the  instinctive  result  that  the  in- 
itiative en  the  part  of  the  Chinese  is,  to 
a  great  extent  eradicated."  *  *  *  "It 
has  the  tendency  to  discourage  the  Chi- 
nese from  regaining  the  power  of  over- 
seeing and  directing  the  affairs  of  the 
corporation,  besides  stripping  them  of 
their  initiative  powers."  *  *  *  "\ye 
notice  that  those  who  lend  their  capi- 
tal for  railway  construction  would  gain 
control  over  the  means  of  communica- 
tion, and  hence  over  domestic  com- 
merce. If  we  should  accomplish  these 
ends  by  our  own  means,  we  could  our- 
selves gain  that  amount  of  profit." 

This  Chinaman  speaks  straight-out 
English  and!  Yankee  common  sense — 
fcr  what  doth  it  profit  an  Oriental  to 
gain  Western  civilization  and  lose  his 
own  country,  or  the  control  of  it? 


TWELVE. 

During  his  second  term  President 
Roosevelt  officially  recommended  two 
changes  in  our  policy  regarding  Asiatic 
immigration  which,  seemingly,  if 
■adopted,  would  result  in  great  evils. 

He  recommended  to  Congress  (first), 
that  the  Chinese  treaty  which  now  is 
designed  to  shut  out  all  Chinese  except 
Chinese  officials,  teachers,  students, 
merchants  and  travellers,  should  be 
changed  or  construed  so  as  to  exclude 
Chinese  coolies  or  laborers  only  and  to 
admit  all  other  Chinese  freely. 

In  another  message  to  Congress  he 
recommend'ed  (second),  that  "an  Act  be 
passed  specifically  providing  for  trie 
naturalization  of  Japanese  who  come 
here  intending  to  become  American 
citizens." 

To  admit  all  classes  of  Chinese  ex- 
cept coolies  and  laborers  would  bring 
about  conditions  similar  to  those  exist- 
ing under  our  treaty  with  Japan.  All 
classes  of  Japanese  under  that  treaty 
can  come  into  this  country  and1  enter 
into  all  kinds  of  business  and  employ- 
ments— and    they   are    doing    that   very 


The  Yellow  Immigration       47 

thing.  The  complaint  is  not  merely  that 
ihe  Japanese  compete  unduly  with 
American  laborers,  but  that  they  enter 
into  competition  with  our  farmers, 
traders  and  business  men  in  many  ways, 
and  build  up  'Oriental  communities 
within  our  States. 

Now  what  the  Japanese  do  the  Chi- 
nese can  d!o.  The  Chinese  are  the  older 
and  in  some  respects  the  superior  peo- 
ple to  the  Japanese.  But  both  of  them 
show  great  aptitude  aaud  supplant  in 
many  places  the  White  man  by  reason 
of  their  frugality,  patience  and  low 
standard  of  living. 

The  fact  is  both  Chinese  and  Japan- 
ese other  than  the  mere  coolie  or  lab- 
orer class,  assuming  that  the  latter 
could  be  shut  entirely  out  of  the  coun- 
try, if  allowed  to  come  here  freely 
would  enter  into  innumerable  lines  of 
employment  and  business,  commercial 
and  productive,  corporate  and  other- 
wise; into  trades  and  callings  and  pro- 
fessions— to  say  nothing  of  the  thou- 
sands of  employees  thus  available  to 
corporate  monopolies  here  in  clerical 
and  industrial  lines,  all  in  competition 
with  American  citizens  and  the  Ameri- 
can standlard  of  living. 


48       The  Yellow  Immigration 

The  second  recommend  above  men- 
tioned, to  grant  citizenship  to  Japanese 
residents  here,  brings  up  the  question 
for  what  type  of  man  was  this  republic 
founded'? 

At  the  time  of  the  Declration  of  In- 
dependence and  of  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution  it  was  never  imagined 
here  nor  in  Europe  that  the  Yellow  man 
— a  pagan,  an  infidel  enemy,  hostile  .o 
Christian  civilization — 'would  ever  mi- 
grate here.  Scarcely  one  of  that  race 
ever  set  foot  on  our  shores  prior  to 
sixty  years  ago.  The  Constitution  pro- 
vided for  White  citizenship  only. 

The  results  of  our  civil  war  brought 
about  the  granting  to  the  Black  Man  of 
the  possibility  of  the  suffrage  franchise 
— necessarily  <a  barren  right  in  large 
areas  here,  and  one  deemed  by  many  to 
have  been  unwisely  granted..  The 
Bhck  vote  largely  enters  into  a  vicious 
form  of  politics  today. 

There  are  now  Asiatics  enough  in  the 
States  of  Washington,  Oregon  and 
Idaho  to  hold  the  balance  of  political 
power  if  possessed!  of  the  ballot.  Asi- 
atics would  everywhere  vote  solidly  to- 
gether. The  right  of  suffrage  confers 
the   consequent   right   to   own   land.     A 


The  Yellow  Immigration       49 

comparatively  few  Japanese  in  this 
country  have  shown  wonderful  faculty 
to  create  local  and  international  com- 
plication, the  echoes  of  which  have  been 
heard  'around  the  globe.  Japanese  am- 
bassadors have  even  sought  to  influence 
legislation  by  our  State  and  Federal 
authorities.  Japanese  suffrage  here 
would  be  a  step  toward  political  hari- 
kari  by  the  American  people. 


THIRTEEN. 

Regarding  Japanese  immigration  the 
late  Administration  inaugurated  a 
"hands  off  and  square  deal"  policy. 
President  Roosevelt  in  1907  made 
a  "  gentlemen's  agreement "  with  the 
Mikado  whereby  the  latter  assumed 
to  keep  Japanese  laborers  from  our 
shores  by  witholding  from  them  pass- 
ports to  leave  Japan  for  American  ports. 
Such  an  agreement  certainly  was  never 
contemplated  by  the  Federal  Constitu- 
tion; and  in  effect  it  leaves  in  the  hands 
of  a  -foreign  potentate  a  control  of  immi- 
gration to  this  country. 

Whether  this  "agreement"  restricts 
the  coming  here  of  Japanese  laborers  or 
not,  is  a  debatable  question.  At  any 
rate  it  is  a  mere  makeshift,  a  temporary 
device  which  utterly  fails  to  touch  the 
great  issues  involved  in  the  question  of 
Asiatic  Immigration.  It  is  an  attempt 
to  solve  a  world  wide  problem  affecting 
the  interests  of  all  the  people,  and  of  all 
commercial  and  social,  and  political  af« 
fairs  of  the  Republic,  likewise,  by  treat- 
ing the  question  as  if  it  were  a  "mere  la- 
bor trouble  out  on  the  Pacific  Coast." 


Tin:   Yellow  Immigration       51 

The  present  administration  continued 
with  Japan  this  so-called  "gentlemen's 
agreement"  which  is  practically  the  only 
restraint  now  put  upon  Japanese  immi- 
gration to  this  country;  and  President 
Taf:  in  his  evident  desire  to  keep  on  good 
terms  with  Japan  also  adopted  a  policy 
in  the  making  of  the  recent  Japanese 
treats  which  practically  eliminaes  from 
considerat"on  in  the  treaty  any  idea  of 
Taoanese  exclusion  as  far  as  this  country 
is  concerned.  This  treaty,  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  Mikado,  was  negotiated  a 
year  before  the  then  existing  treaty 
would  expire  and  was  put  through  the 
Urrted  States  Senate  within  the  limits 
of  a  three  days'  consideration  and  dis- 
cussion of  the  same. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  Senators 
frons  the  Pacific  coast  and  farwest 
States  were  impelled  to  accede  to  the 
terms  of  this  treaty  from  the  desire  of 
their  constituents  to  secure  at  San  Fran- 
cisco the  site  for  the  Panama  exposition 
then  eagerly  sought  for  in  Con&^ss 
both  by  San  Francisco  and  New  Or- 
leans. T'he  {groat  desire  of  tine  adminis- 
tration and  of  those  who  were  promot- 
ing the  locating  and  carrying  on  of  the 
exposition   at    San    Francisco,    was    to 


52       Thk  Ykixow  Immigration 

eliminate  all  racial  difficulties  with  Ja- 
panese immigrations  there  dwelling — at 
least  until  the  exposition  should  be  end- 
ed. So  "peace  prevails',  on  the  Pacific 
coast  at  present,  but  no  one  imagines 
that  trouble  between  the  two  races  will 
not  arise  later  on ;  and  it  is  evident  some 
settled  and  stern  policy  regarding  such 
immigration  will  have  to  be  openly  de- 
clared and  maintained  by  our  govern- 
ment. 

Instead  of  eliminating  from  our  treat- 
ies and  negotiations  with  Japan,  and 
with  China,  and  other  Oriental  nations, 
all  allusion  to  terms  indicating  a  purpose 
of  excluding  the  yellow  races  from  this 
country,  it  would  be  better  to  state 
such  purpose  in  unmistakable  language. 
This  policy  was  well  outlined  by  Senator 
Newlands  in  a  speech  made  in  the  Senate 
some  two  years  ago,  and  on  other  occa- 
sions reiterated  by  him,  as   follows. 

"We  should  declare  by  law  that  im- 
migration to  this  country  shall  be  re- 
restricted  to  the  white  race  alone,  except 
for  the  purposes  of  travel,  education,  and 
international  trade,  and  that  the  immi- 
gration of  the  white  races  of  this  coun- 
rv  shall  be  restricted  to  those  whose 
physical      constitution,      character     and 


The  Ykluhv  Immigration       S3 

training  will  fit  them  ultimately  for 
American  citizenship." 

That  eventually  such  an  attitude  nec- 
essarily will  be  taken  seems  most  evi- 
dent. Our  population  as  far  as  possible 
must  be  homogeneous,  and  be  of  the 
pure  and  unmixed  white  type  of  man — 
we  cannot  safely  tolerate  the  presence 
in  the  west  or  elsewhere  of  ,any  Orien- 
tal race  or  civilization. 

This  whole  question  of  immigration 
to  our  shores,  is  inextricably  mixed  with 
and  allied  to  the  question  of  the  West- 
ern invasion  of  the  East  by  the  white 
race.  The  tendency  is,  as  heretotore 
referred  to,  for  the  monopolistic  forces 
of  white  civilization  to  crowd  into  the 
areas  populated  by  the  yellow  races, 
and  to  exploit  them  and  their  resources 
— to  dominate  them  by  certain  financial 
and  industrial  control,  and  to  reside  and 
traverse  those  areas  at  will.  We  cannot 
maintain  the  exclusion  of  the  yellow 
races  from  the  western  areas,  unless  we 
refrain  from  invading  in  this  way  the 
Oriental  areas  and  civilization. 

This  immigration  question  is  a  world 
wide  issue  and  the  forces  back  of  the 
same  sweep  around  the  world  eastward 
as  well  as  westward.    Worldwide  conten- 


54       The  Yellow   Immigration 

t  oiis  and  warfare  illimitable  u  likely  to 
spring  out  of  trie  controversies  now 
looming  up  in  this  way.  Just  at  this 
time  in  the  Twentieth  Century  whilst 
armies  and  navies  greater  than  ever  be- 
fore known  are  being  maintained  by  all 
the  Great  Powers,  are  heard  in  Hague 
conferences  and  around  the  globe  whis- 
pers of  peace  universal  and  lasting — and 
public  opinion  in  all  lands  demands  that 
desideratum. 

More  than  all  else  would  peace  be  pre- 
served if  the  nations  would  agree  that 
henceforth  no  militant  territorial  en- 
croachments, no  capitalistic  industrial 
exploitations  should  be  undertaken  by  the 
West  in  the  East,  and  that  the  migration 
of  the  surplus  populations  of  the  Orient 
should  be  wisely  directed,  first  of  all,  to 
the  various  undeveloped  or  sparsely 
settled  areas  of  the  old  world ;  that  un- 
selfish aid  and  guidance  should  be  ex- 
tended from  the  more  advanced  civiliza- 
tions to  the  feebler  peoples  according  to 
the  wishes  and  capacities  of  the  later — 
then,  indeed,  peace  might  prevail  in  all 
the  earth. 

To  discuss  and  establish  a  policy  like 
this  whereby  each  type  of  Man  might 
develop  in  its  own  habitat  according  to 


Tiik   Yellow   Immigration       55 

the  law  of  Evolution  would  be  a  confer- 
ence worthy  of  a  Twentieth  Century 
Hague,  and  of  the  highest  aspirations  of 
the  human  race — and  thereby  would  be 
taken  a  far  step  toward  the  solving  of 
the  problem  of  Asiatic  immigration. 


THE 

WHITE 

IMMIGRATION 


FOURTEEN. 

The  Caucasian,  or  White  type  of  man, 
differing  essentially  from  the  other  four 
ethnical  divisions  of  mankind,  includes 
numerous  groups  or  sub-divisions  fre- 
quently called  "races,"  having  diverse 
languages,  civilizations,  customs  and 
histories. 

The  immigration  of  the  White  man 
to  the  Western  Hemisphere,  especially 
within  the  areas  now  forming  the 
United  States,  was  almost  wholly  com- 
posed of  Europeans  who  were  descend- 
ants of  a  common  original  racial  stock, 
and  who  had  passed  through  a  similar 
social  and  political  development. 

Up  to  the  adoption  of  the  Federal 
constitution  the  white  immigrants  to 
this  country,  with  the  exception  of  a 
comparatively  small  number  of  French 
and  Spanish  settlers,  came  from  western 
and  northwestern  Europe,  from  such 
countries  as,  Great  Britain,  Germany, 
Norway,  Sweden  and  other  areas  there 
situated.  These  settlers  though  differing 
in  language  and  in  some  minor  parti- 
culars were  radically  so  similar  in  their 
instincts  and  civilization  that  they  readi- 
ly assimilated  and  formed  what  is  verv 


60        The  White  Immigration 

generally  known  as  the  American  type 
of  man  and  the  American  civilization. 

A  large  portion  of  the  earlier  immi- 
grants to  this  coumtry  went  directly  on- 
to vacant  lands.  Very  many  of  them 
were  skilled  mechanics  and  workmen; 
they  could  not  have  been  used  to  cut 
down  the  American  standard  of  living 
even  if  that  had  been  attempted  in  those 
days.  They  came  to  stay,  to  acquire 
homes,  not  to  exploit  the  labor  market 
and  then  return  home  as  so  many  of  our 
present  day  immigrants  do. 

This  sort  of  immigration  practically 
unchanged  continued  on  until  about 
thirty  years  ago,  and  up  to  that  time 
95  per  cent  of  our  white  immigrants 
came  from  the  Western  and  Northwest- 
ern countries  of  Europe. 

But  in  1880  and  thereafter  the  char- 
acter of  white  immigrantion  to  this  coun- 
try changed  so  greatly  that  by  the  year 
1907,  81  per  cent  of  such  immigrants 
came  from  Southern  and  Southeastern 
Europe  and  Western  Asia,  including 
Austria-Hungary,  Bulgaria,  Greece, 
Italy,  Montenegro,  Poland,  Portugfcil, 
Roumatnia,  Russia,  Servia,  Syria,  and 
Turkey. 

The  United  States'  Immigration  Com- 


Tiik  White  Immigration        6i 

'.mission  in  their  report  upon  immigra- 
tion to  this  country,  for  convenience 
divide  such  immigrat'on  into  two  class- 
es, v'z ;  "The  old  immigration  move- 
ment," referring  to  immigration  prior 
to  1880;  and  the  "New  immigration 
movement"  referring  to  immigration 
since  1880  down  to  1910.  And  this 
Commission  commenting  upon  the  same 
states  as  follows : 

"The  old  and  the  new  immigration 
differ  in  many  essentials.  The  former 
was,  from  the  beginning,  largely  a  move- 
ment of  settlers  who  came  from  the 
most  enlightened  sections  of  Europe  for 
the  purpose  of  making  for  themselves 
homes  in  the  New  World.  They  enter- 
ed practically  every  line  of  activity  in 
nearly  every  part  of  the  country.  Com- 
ing during  a  period  of  agricultural  de- 
velopment, many  of  them  entered  agri- 
cultural pursuits,  sometimes  as  indepen- 
dent farmers,  but  more  often  as  farm 
laborers,  who,  nevertheless,  as  a  iuit 
soon  became  landowners.  They  formed 
an  important  part  of  the  great  nwv^ 
ment  toward  the  West  during  the  last 
century,  and  as  poineers  wrere  most  po- 
tent factors  in  the  development  of  the 
territory  between  the  Allegheny  Moun- 


62        The:  White:  Immigration 

tains  and  the  Baicfic  Coast.  They  ming- 
led freely  with  the  native  Americans 
an  1,  were  quickly  assimilated  although 
a  large  proportion  of  them,  particularly 
in  later  years,  belonged  to  non-English 
speaking  races.  This  natural  bar  to  as- 
similation,  however,  was  soon  overcome 
by  them,  while  the  racial  identity  of 
their  children  was  almost  entirely  lost 
and  forgotten. 

"On  the  other  hand,  the  new  immigra- 
tion has  been  largely  a  movement  of  un- 
skilled laboring  men  who  have  come,  in 
large  part  temporarily,  from  the  less  en- 
lightened and  advanced  countries  of 
Rrrope  in  response  to  the  call  for  indus- 
trial workers  in  the  eastern  and  middle, 
western  States.  They  have  almost  en- 
tirely avoided  agricultural  pursuits,  and 
in  cit:es  and  industrial  communities 
have  congregated  together  in  sections 
apart  from  native  Americans  and  the 
older  immigrants  to  such  an  extent  that 
assimilation  h'as  been  slow  as  compared 
to  that  of  the  earlier  non-English-speak- 
ing races. 

"The  new  immigration  as  a  class  is 
far  less  intelligent  than  the  old,  more 
than  one-third  of  all  those  over  14  years 
of   age  being  illiterate   when  admitted. 


The  White  Immigration        63 

Racially  they  are  for  the  most  part  es- 
sentially unlike  the  British,  German,  and 
other  peoples  who  came  during  the 
period  prior  to  1880,  and  generally 
speaking  they  are  actuated  in  coming  by 
different  ideals,  for  the  old  immigration 
came  to  be  a  part  of  the  country,  while 
the  new,  in  a  large  measure,  comes  with 
the  intention  of  profiting,  in  a  pecuni- 
ary way,  by  the  superior  advantages  of 
the  New  World  and  then  returning  to 
the   old  country   *     *     *     * 

"The  old  imnrgration  movement  in 
recent  years  has  rapidly  declined,  both 
numerically  and  relatively,  and  under 
present  conditions  there  are  no  indica- 
tions that  it  will  materially  increase. 
The  new  immigration  movement  is  very 
large,  and  there  are  few,  if  any  indica- 
tions of  its  natural  abatement." 

In  this  way  the  Commission  have 
briefly  outlined  the  salient  features  and 
dangers  which  are  presented  by  the 
past  and  by  the  present  continuance  of 
white  immigration  to  this  country. 


FIFTEEN. 

Formerly  the  coming  of  average  white 
type  immigrants  to  this  country  tended 
to  bring  about  the  occupancy  and  de- 
velopment of  our  unsettled  lands,  to  fill 
an  increasing  demand  for  wage  workers 
in  our  expanding  industries,  and  to  add 
to  the  -number  of  those  who  could  pro- 
fitably employ  themselves  in  the  marts 
of  trade  and  in  their  several  profession- 
al occupations. 

Today  there  is  a  scarcity  of  desirable 
vacant  lands  to  meet  needs  of  our  pre- 
sent population,  there  is  an  excess  of 
nnsklled  labor  seeking  employment  in 
our  manufacturing  and  other  great  in- 
dustries, and  there  is  no  demand,  or 
scarcely  any  opportunity  whatever  for 
immigrants  to  enter  into  our  commercial 
and  professional  walks  of  life. 

The  movement  to  this  country  of 
wlrte  home-seeking  farmers,  agricul- 
turists, or  settlers,  has  nearly  ceased. 
Only  about  fifteen  per  cent  of  the  immi- 
grants of  the  present  day  are  classified 
as  " farmers,  or  farm  workers,"  amd  but 
a  small  proportion  of  such  classification 
pre  fitted  to  become  in  this  country, 
farmers     or     farm      laborers.        Most 


The  White  Immigration       65 

of  such  classification  are  mere  unskilled 
laborers,  settling  for  the  most  part  in 
the  Eastern  and  Middle  States,  and  in 
our  great  cities.  The  Annual  Report 
of  the  Commissioner  General  of  Immi- 
gration for  1910  shows  that  out  of 
1,198,037  aliens  entering  the  United 
States  in  1910,  onlv  15,476  were  "farm- 
ers/' and  only  226,380  could  be  classi- 
fied as  "farm  laborers/' 

By  immigration  of  this  kind  a  vital 
change  is  taking  place  in  the  character 
of  American  civilization.  The  Ibuildh 
ing  up  of  Amercan  homes  wide-spread 
over  sparsely  settled  areas  no  longer 
occurs,  and  we  now  behold  the  develop- 
ment of  great  centers  of  alien  races 
civilizations  here  and  there  industrially, 
and  the  congestion  of  undesirable  popu- 
lations in  the  great  cities  of  the  At- 
lantic seaboard  and  in  the  Middle 
States. 

In  thirty-three  of  our  largest  cities  the 
foreign  population  is  larger  than  the 
native  born;  this  foreign  percentage  is 
as  high  as  eighty-five  per  cent  in  Fall 
River  and  in  a  number  of  other  Atlantic 
seaboard  cities,  and  even  as  far  West- 
ward as  Milwaukee.  The  foreign  col- 
onies existing  in  such  cities  are  isolated 


66        The  White  Immigration 

from  the  rest  of  ihe  community  by 
language,  customs,  instincts  as  much  as 
if  they  were  located  in  their  respective 
native  lands.  Eighty  per  cent  of  the 
population  of  Manhattan  Island  is  for- 
eign born  or  of  foreign  parentage. 

The  conditions  under  which  a  large 
proportion  of  the  population  of  Mew 
York  City  and  many  other  of  our  large 
cities  and  industrial  centers  live  and 
carry  on  their  several  occupations  are 
not  only  unAmerican  but  are  absolutely 
shocking  and  are  destructive  of  the  in- 
dustrial, social  and.  political  develop- 
ment of  American  ideals.  It  is  unnec- 
essary to  dwell  upon  these  horrible 
nests  of  crime  and  pauperism  so  often 
there  evident ;  the  crowded  tenements 
and  disease-breeding  alleys;  the  fac- 
tories and  sweat-shops  which  degrade 
and  destroy  the  lives  of  industrial 
workers ;  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
young  children  and  frail  women  labor- 
ing in  disease-breeding  and  life-de- 
stroying conditions  —  they  are  things 
familiar  to  all  men  and  acknowledged 
to  exist. 

Such  conditions  would  never  have 
existed  in  this  country,  they  could  not 
today  here  exist  for  an  hour,  if  it  were 


The  White:  Immigration       67 

not  for  the  influx  by  immigration  of 
herds  of  undesirable,  foreign-born 
people  who  have  been  admitted  to  our 
shores.  They  have  arisen,  very  largely, 
since  the  change  in  the  character  of  im- 
migration to  this  country  has  come  about 
— within  the  past  generation,  for  the 
most  part. 

This  fact  also  stands  out :  This  urn- 
desirable  immigration  is  on  the  increase ; 
behind  it  is  the  pressure  of  unnumbered 
hordes  of  the  same  classes  of  immi- 
grants who  are  seeking  to  cross  the  At- 
lantic an'd  who  surely  will  crowd  in  there 
under  the  immigration  laws  as  they  now 
stand.  The  numbers  who  will  thus 
come,  if  needed  changes  are  not  made 
in  our  immigration  policy,  are  practical- 
ly unlimited.  The  continuance  of  this 
sort  of  immigration  a<nd  of  our  present 
immigration  laws  and  policy  means  that 
th><;  American  standard  of  living  .will  be 
lowered  in  nearly  all  our  great  indus- 
trial! operations  where  wage-workers 
are  employed;  that  directly  and  indirect- 
ly trusts  and  monopolies  will  become 
still  more  powerful  in  their  control  of 
the  necessities  of  life  for  all  the  Ameri- 
can people — and  that  our  social  and 
political  ideals  will  be  swept  away. 


SIXTEEN. 

Confessedly  the  industrial  phase  of 
this  immigration  question  underlies  all 
other  considerations  of  the  same,  lit 
settles  inevitably  the  wage  standard,  the 
sort  of  people  who  shall  make  up  the 
great  mass  of  wage  workers,  the  con- 
ditions under  which  they  work  and  live, 
and  affects  the  social  and  politicial  status 
of  the  entire  nation. 

In  times  past  as  a  rule,  the  condition 
of  the  "American  wage-worker"  has  been 
vastly  better  than  that  of  the  wage- 
workers  anywhere  else  employed  in  the 
world. 

In  a  recent  article  published  in  the 
North  American  Review,  written  by  the 
Secretary  of  the  United  States  Immi- 
gration Commission/  the  (following  is 
said  concerning  "The  American  Wage- 
Worker"  : 

"The  term  'American  wage  earner' 
is  'rapidly  becoming  ia  misnomer.  Almost 
three-fifths  of  the  employes  of  the  princi- 
pal branches  of  mining  and  manufac- 
turing in  the  United  States  at  the  pres- 
ent time  are  of  foreign  birth,  and  about 
one-fourth  are  of  races  from  southern 
and   eastern    Europe.      About   one-fifth 


The  White  Immigration       69 

of  the  total  number  of  -wage  earners 
were  born  in  this  country,  but  their 
fathers  were  born  abroad.  Less  than  20 
per  cent  of  the  entire  operating  forces  of 
our  mines  and  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments are  native  Americans.  In 
many  of  our  industries  the  proportion 
of  employees  of  foreign  birth  ranges  as 
high  as75  per  cent,  with  a  corresponding 
falling  off  in  the  number  of  native 
Americans.  Among  bituminous  coal 
and  iron-ore  mine  workers,  by  way  of 
illustration  ,  less  than  one-tenth  are 
native  Americans.  'The  fact  of  greatest 
import  in  connection  with  the  situation 
is  that  about  one4ialf  of  the  industrial 
workers  of  foreign  birth  are  southern 
and  eastern  Europeans  and  Asiatics, 
principally  representative  of  the  north 
and  south  Italians,  Poles,  Croatians, 
Creeks,  Lithuanians,  Russians,  Portu- 
guese, Slovenians,  and  Russian  and 
other  Hebrews.  This  transformation 
in  the  racial  composition  of  the  wage 
earners  of  the  country  has  been  brought 
about  by  the  immigration  to  the  United 
vStates  during  the  last  30  years. 

The  most  general  effect  of  this  ex- 
tensive employment  of  recent  immi- 
grants in  American  industries  is  found 


yo        The  White  Immigration 

in  the  character  of  the  industrial  com- 
munities of  the  country  at  the  present 
time.  There  is  no  manufacturing  city 
or  town  or  any  mining  comunity  of  any 
importance  in  the  Middle  West,  New 
England,  and  the  middle  States  which 
has  not  a  foreign  section  made  up  of  in- 
dustrial -workers  from  southern  and 
eastern  Europe.  In  the  older  industrials 
cities  ann  centers  of  the  country  immi- 
veloped  and  attached  themselves  to  trie 
a   orginal   population. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  large  number  of 
immigrant  communities  have  come  into 
existence  within  recent  years  because  of 
the  development  o-f  some  natural  re- 
source, such  as  coal,  iron  ore,  ui  cupper, 
or  by  reason  of  the  extension  of  the 
principal  manufacturing  industries  of 
the  country.  In  both  classes  of  industrial 
communities  there  has  been  a  dist'nc* 
segregation  of  the  immigrant  and  native 
American  population,  and  there  is  little 
contact  or  association  beyond  that  ren- 
dered necessary  by  business  or  working 
relations.  The  immigrant  workmen  and 
their  households  usually  live  in  colonies 
according  to  race,  attend  and  support 
their  own  churches,  maintain  their  own 
business  institutions  and  places  of  recrc- 


The  Whits  Immigration       71 

tation,  and  have  their  own  fraternal  and 
business    organizations. 

As  a  consequence  of  this  general  iso- 
lation the  tendencies  toward  Americani- 
zation exhibited  by  the  southern  and 
eastern  Europeans  are  small,  and  the 
maintenance  of  old  customs  and  stand- 
ards lends  to  congestion  and  insanitary 
housing  and  living  conditions.  Agen- 
cies for  the  Americanization  and  assim- 
ilation of  the  immigrant  wage  earners 
and  their  families  are  rare,  and  the  na- 
tive Americans,  as  a  rule,  are  indifTer* 
ent  in  their  attitude  toward  the  immi- 
grant population  and  its  problems. " 

As  illustrative  of  such  facts,  take  the 
city  of  Lia-wrence,  Massachusetts,  the 
scene  of  recent  riots  and  labor  troubles, 
as  described  by  Senator  Simmons,  in  a 
late  speech  in  t'he  Senate : 

"The  racial  composition  of  Lawrence 
and  the  racial  displacements  which  have 
occurred  in  the  worsted  and  woolen 
mills  there  are  typical  of  other  woolen 
goods  manufacturing  centers  in  New 
England.  ;This  has  recently  been  dis- 
closed by  the  United  States  Immigration 
Commission  and  t'he  TiarifT  Board. 

"Only  about  one-eighth  of  the  woolen 
'and  worsted  mill  operatives  at  the  pre- 


J2        The  White  Immigration 

sent  time  are  native  Americans.  Slight- 
ly more  than  three-fifths  are  foreign 
born,  chiefly  recent  immigrants  from 
southern  and  eastern  Europe.  The  re- 
mainder 'are  the  native-born  children  of 
parents  who  were  born  abroad.  During 
the  past  20  years  the  American  and  the 
British  and  northern  European  immi- 
grants have  been  rapidly  leaving  the 
mills,  owing  to  the  pressure  of  the  com- 
petition of  the  recent  immigrant.  The 
south  Italian,  Polish,  and  north  Italian 
are  the  three  principal  races  of  southern 
and  eastern  Europe  engaged  in  the  in- 
dustry, while  the  English,  Irish,  and 
German  of  the  races  of  past  immigra- 
tion are  represented  in  the  larger 
numbers. 

"Of  the  foreign-born  employees  about 
one-fifth  of  the  males  and  two-fifths  of 
the  females  have  had  had  experience  in 
the  same  kind  of  work  before  coming  to 
this  country,  while  two-fifths  of  the  male 
employees  and  one-third  of  the  female 
have  been  farmers  or  farm  laborers  in 
their  native  countries.  The  average 
weekly  wage  of  the  male  operatives  18 
years  of  age  or  over  is  only  $10.49,  an<^ 
of  the  female  employees  $8.18.  The 
average  annual  earnings  of  male  heads 


The  White:  Immigration        73 

of  families  employed  in  the  industry  are 
only  $400,  (and  of  all  males  18  years  of 
age  or  over  $346.       *       *♦■*** 

"The  effect  of  these  low  earnings  is 
shown  in  the  bad  living  conditions  and 
the  high  degree  of  congestion  which  pre- 
vails in  the  households  of  the  operatives. 

"Very  little  political  or  civic  interest 
is  manifested  by  the  southern  and  east/1 
earn  Europeans.  Only  3  out  of  every  10 
males  eligible  to  citizenship  have  taken 
out  naturalization  papers.         *       *       * 

"It  is  a  foreign  city  on  American  soil. 
There  are  85,000  inhabitants  in  the  mill 
town  of  Lawrence,  tand  less  than  12,000 
of  them  'are  Americans.  It  is  a  great 
industrial  town.  It  is  a  center  for  the 
manufacture  of  woolens  and  worsteds. 
There  are  employed  in  this  industry  in 
that  town  something  like  30,000  people; 
92  per  cent  of  them  are  foreign-born 
and  that  part  coming  from  southeastern 
Europe  does  not  live  in  the  American 
quarters  of  that  city.  They  live  segre- 
gated, in  colonies.  They  have  practical- 
ly no  contact  or  association  with  Oiur 
people.  They  cling  to  the  habits  of  their 
old  countries.  They  do  not  speak  our 
language.  Fifty  per  cent  of  them  can 
neither  read  nor  write  in  any  language." 


74        The  White  Immigration 

And  concerning  the  illiteracy  prevail- 
ing in  Lawrence,  Senator  Dillingham, 
added  the  following : 

"Among  the  Scotch  seven-tenths  of 
i  per  cent  are  illiterate,  and  there  are 
2,300  of  them  in  Lawrence.  Of  French 
Canadians  there  are  12,000.  I  don't 
remember  the  percentage.  Of  German 
there  are  in  Lawrence  6,500,  and  only 
5.1  per  cent  ordinarily  are  illiterate.  Of 
the  Polish  t'here  2,100,  and  thirty-five 
and  four-tenths  per  cent  are  ill  terate. 
Of  the  Portuguese  there  are  only  700 
in  the  city,  and  of  those — that  is,  the 
Portuguese  as  a  rule ;  I  am  not  speaking 
of  the  Portuguese  in  the  city  of  Law- 
rence— 68.2  per  cent —  I  am  speaking 
of  our  experience  in  receiving  Europ- 
ean immigrants  during  the  last  20  years. 
Tn  those  years  68  per  cent  of  the  Portu- 
guese have  been  illiteraate.  Of  Hebrews 
there  are  2,500  in  Lawrence,  and  the 
general  percentage  of  illiteracy  is  25.7 
Of  Italians  there  are  in  Lawrence  8,000 
and  of  those  we  may  expect  to  find,  as 
the  Senator  has  said,  54.2  per  cent  illi- 
terate; Of  the  Syrians  there  are  2,700 
in  Lawrence,  and  their  percentage  of  il- 
literacy is  54.1.  Of  the  Armenians  there 
are  a  smaller  number,  600,  in  L:w"rence, 


The  White  Immigration        75 

and  24.1  per  cent  of  them  are  supposed 
to  be  illiterate.  Of  Lithuanians  there  'are 
3,000  in  Lawrence,  with  48.8  per  cent  il- 
literate" 

In  may  of  the  basic  occupations  of  the 
country  it  is  indisputably  true  that  the 
poorest  of  the  poor  of  non-English  speak- 
ing immigrants  have  driven  out  Ameri- 
can-born workers  and  in  such  industries 
destroyed  the  American  standard  of  liv- 
ing. Mr.  John  A.  Pitch  in  his  book  "The 
Steel  Workers,"  says  that  at  the  Carnegie 
Steel  Company's  plants,  23,337  men 
were  employed,  of  these  7,7479  were 
^foreigners  unable  to  speak  English,  14,- 
019  were  unnaturalized,  and  only  5,705 
were  native-born  white  Americans. 

The  Boston  Common  in  April  191 1 
referring  to  a  strike  of  the  grinders  of 
the  American  Ax  and  Tool  Company  at 
East  Douglas,  Massachusetts,  said  that 
the  force  working  there  is  laregly  made 
up  of  Pole  and  Finns ;  and  concerning 
•the  lamentably  low  rate  of  wages  stated 
"There  are  perhaps  fifty  villages  in  Mas- 
sachusetts in  which  similar  factory  con- 
ditions exist. 

The  five  cities  of  New  York,  Chicago, 
Baltimore,  Philadelphia  and  Rochester 
manufacture  nearly  70  per  cent  of  the 


y6        The  White:  Immigration 

total  product  of  men's  ready-made  cloth- 
ing made  in  the  United  States.  Over 
50  per  cent  of  the  workers  in  those  cities 
engaged  in  such  industry  are  women  of 
whom  only  7.4  per  cent  are  native-born 
Americans — and  the  average  weekly 
earnings  of  those  "house  workers,"  with 
helpers,  were  $3.72.  Among  the  house 
workers  at  this  occupation,  in  all  cities, 
75  per  cent  cannot  speak  English. 

iThe  above  are  simply  a  few  instances 
illustrating  the  widespread  condit;on  of 
a  large  share  of  the  wage  workers  of  this 

country  in  some  of  the  most  important 
industries  of  the  same.  Now  how  has 
this  displacement  of  native-born  workers 
by  low-priced  foreign-born  labofers 
been  brought  about  to  so  great  an  ex- 
tent? It  has  been  made  possible  by  two 
causes ;  first,  the  desire  of  the  managers 
of  certain  great  industrial  corporations  to 
secure  low-priced  wage  workers ;  and, 
the  greed  of  great  steamship  companies 

(mostly  owned  by  foreign  capital  and 
conducted  under  foreign  flags)  to  make 
vast  profits  from  the  bringing  in  to  and 
carrying  from  this  country  great  numbers 
of  steerage  passenger  immigrants.  The 
amount  of  capital  invested  in  these 
steamship  companies    is   enormous,   >a.nd 


The  White   Immigration        yj 

the  profits  made  in  this  way  are  propor- 
t  onately  great. 

The  two  causes  enumerated  have 
brought  about  the  traversing  of  the  At- 
lantic to  and  fro  annually  of  vast  num- 
bers of  immigrant  work-men  known  ps 
"birds  of  passage"  who  enter  here  and 
obtain  employment  at  wages  below  ihe 
American  standard  and  by  parisimonious 
living  in  gangs  save  the  greater  portion  of 
their  wages,  /and  when  the  demand  for 
their  labor  ceases  go  back  again  to  meir 
native  countries — carrying  with  them  the 
greater  bulk  of  their  earnings.  It  has 
been  shown  that  in  recent  years  these 
immigrants  returning  to  their  homes 
ihave  taken  out  of  the  country  sums  of 
money  annually  aggregating  from  three 
hundred  to  four  hundred  million  dollars. 

Concerning  recent  white  immigration 
to  this  country  the  Immigration  Com- 
mission state  in  their  report  'as  follows : 

"The  old  immigartion  movement  was 
essentially  one  of  permanent  settlers. 
Fine  new  immigration  (since  1882)  is 
very  largely  one  of  individuals,  a  consi- 
derable proportion  of  whom  apparently 
have  no  intention  of  permanently  chang- 
ing their  residence,  their  only  purpose 
in  coming  to  America  being  to  tempor- 


78        The  White  Immigration 

arily  take  advantage  of  the  greater  wages 
paid  for  industrial  labor  in  this  country. 
This,  of  course,  is  not  true  of  all  the  new 
immigrants,  but  the  pratice  is  sufficient- 
ly common  to  warrant  referring  to  it 
as  a  characteristic  of  them  as  a  class.     * 

*  *  *  :|c  *  $  *  ijc  $ 

"As  a  class  the  new  immigrants  are 
largely  unskilled  laborers  coming  from 
countres  where  their  highest  wage  is 
small  compared  with  the  lowest  wage  in 
the  United  Staes.  Nearly  seventy-five 
per  cent  of  them  are  males."       t    *     * 

They  bring  little  money  into  the  coun- 
try and  send  or  take  a  considerable  part 
of  their  earnings  out.  More  than  35  per 
cent  are  illiterate,  as  compared  with  less 
than  3  per  cent  of  the  old  unmigrant 
class." 

Upon  the  indus'ral  phase  of  present 
dav  immigration  the  Commission  as  a 
result  of  their  examination  make,  in  part, 
the  following  recommendation.  They 
say : 

"(8)  The  investigations  of  the  Com- 
mission show  an  oversuoplv  of  unskilled 
labor  in  basic  industries  to  an  extent 
which  indicates  an  over-supply  of  un- 
skilled labor  in  the  industries  of  the 
connttry  as  a  whole — a  condition  which 


. \ "uitk  Immigration        79 

demands  legislation  restricting  the   fur- 
ther admission  of  such  unskilled  labor. 

It  is  desirable  in  making  the  restric- 
tion that— 

(a)  A  sufficient  number  be  debarred 
to  produce  a  marked  effect  upon  the  pre- 
sent supply  of  unskilled  labor. 

(b)  As  far  as  possible,  the  aliens  ex- 
cluded should  be  those  who  come  to  mis 
country  with  no  intention  to  become 
American  citizens,  or  even  to  maintain 
a  permanent  residence  here,  but  merely 
to  save  enough  by  the  adoption,  if  nece- 
sary,  or  of  low  standads  of  living,  to  re- 
turn permanently  to  their  home  country 
Such  persons  are  usually  men  unaccom- 
panied by  wives  or  children. 

(c)  As  far  as  possible  the  aliens  ex- 
cluded should  also  be  those  who,  by  rea- 
son of  their  personal  qualities  or  habits, 
would  least  readily  be  assimilated  or 
would  make  the  least  desirable  citizens. 


SEVENTEEN. 

The  disastrous  effect  of  such  immi- 
gration upon  the  industrial  conditions  of 
wage  workers  here  has  long  been  rec- 
ognized everywhere  in  this  country. 
Organized  labor  for  more  than  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  has  persistently  sought 
the  passage  by  Congress  of  restrictive 
immigration  laws.  Some  steps  in  that 
direction  have  been  taken,  but  as  yet 
they  are  entirely  inadequate  to  afford 
the  protection  desired. 

In  more  recent  years  a  widely  ex- 
tended public  opinion  has  become  ap- 
parent concerning  the  evils  of  this  im- 
migration, especially  as  existing  in  our 
great  cities  and  industrial  centers  where 
great  populations  of  aleins  are  con- 
gested and  dwell  in  conditions  which  are 
absolutely  destructive  to  American 
standards  of  civilization  and  llife. 
Great  cities  are  really  the  nerve  centers 
of  the  countries  of  which  they  form  a 
part.  They  dominate  to  a  great  extent 
the  social,  industrial,  and  political 
status  of  a  nation.  And  so  it  has  come 
about  that  the  evils  referred  to  in  our 
densely  populated  areas  are  seriously  af- 
fecting not  onlv  the  industrial  but  the 


The  White  Immigration        8i 

soicial  and  political  ideals  which  this  re- 
public was  instituted  to  establish  and 
maintain. 

In  view  of  these  facts  efforts  have 
been  made  by  the  federal  government, 
by  many  of  the  State  governments,  and 
by  various  philanthropic  and  patriotic 
organizations  to  distribute  into  the  more 
sparsely  settled  areas  of  the  country, 
among  agricultural  and  in  smaller  in- 
dustrial centers  of  the  country  some  por- 
tion of  the  alien  population  crowded 
into  our  great  cities.  It  is  to  be  ob- 
served that  even  if  these  efforts  had  been 
or  could  be  crowned  with  success  they 
would  bring  about  mere  palliative  and 
temporary  remedies.  If  thousands  or 
hundreds  of  thousands  or  even  millions 
of  aliens  were  thus  removed  to  other 
sections  of  the  country,  it  would  serve 
merely  to  create  new  openings  and  op- 
portunities for  the  coming  of  s'  ill 
greater  numbers  of  undesirable  immi- 
grants from  foreign  snores, — for,  prac- 
tically, under  existing  immigration  laws, 
there  remain  in  the  crowded'  areas  of 
Southeastern  Europe  and  Southwestern 
Asia  abundant  millions  more  of  such 
immigrants  who  would  seek  our  shores. 
It  is  .evident  then,  that  the  remedy  does 


82        Ths  White  Immigration 

not  lie  in  plans  for  distribution  of  such 
undesirable  and  exessive  immigration — 
hewever  humane  and  philanthropic  may 
be  the  motives  underlying  these  under- 
takings. 

Without  going  into  detail  the  various 
attempts  made  by  "National  Liberal 
Immigration  Leagues/'  racial  and  local 
Immigration  Bureaus  and  various  State 
organizations,  providing  for  the  bringing 
in  of  aliens  and  placing  them  upon  the 
sparsely  settled  sections  of  the  several 
states,  especially  in  the  south  and  south- 
west, are  illustrative  of  the  futility  of 
such  efforts. 

Such  'a  conservative  and  influential 
journal  as  the  "Baltimore  Manufactur- 
ers' Record,"  in  review  of  the  distribu- 
tion movement,  has  said,  in  part: 

"Willingness  on  the  part  of  a  few 
Southern  men  here  and  there  has  given 
ephermeral  standing  to  a  variety  of  un- 
dertakings, called  'Southern  congresses, 
parliaments  and  conventions,  under  cov- 
er of  which  has  been  sought  promotion 
of  the  purpose  to  relieve  New  York  of 
its  'congestion'  at  the  expense  of  other 
parts  of  the  country  ,and  thereby  to  allay 
immediate  opposition  to  the  carrying  out 
of  alien  European  plans  to  exploit  the 


Ths  White  Immigration       83 

people  of  the  United  States.  In  view  of 
the  menacing  situation  tfae  safety  of  the 
country  lies  in  opposing  vigorously  at 
every  turn  .any  proposition  originating  in 
or  from  New  York  turning  upon  'phil- 
anthropic desire  to  help  the  rest  of  the 
country  by  supplying  it  with  labor  from 
the  metropolis.  'Philanthropy'  has  come- 
in  to  suich  bad  odor  in  recent  years 
through  the  drive  made  irom  New  York 
against  the  South  upon  economic,  social 
or  educational  lines  that  now  it  is  quite 
the  thing  to  announce  that  new  undertak- 
ings are  essentially  businesslike  and  that 
the  'philanthropy'  involved  is  purely  in- 
cidental. The  rest  of  the  country  should 
do  all  within  its  powers  to  encourage  the 
divers  organizations  of  the  kind  in  New 
York  to  solve  their  various  problems  by 
agitating  for  greater  restrictions  upon 
immigration,  and,  to  that  end,  for  the 
abolition  of  the  worse  than  useless  Div- 
ision of  Information  in  the  National  Bu- 
reau of  Immigration." 

Many  other  of  the  leading  newspapers 
and  periodicals  of  the  South  and  West 
have  time  and  again  published  similar 
declarations. 

|The  leading  Farmers'  Union  organiz- 
ations   'and    educational    and    industrial 


84        The  White  Immigration 

bodies,  severally,  and  in  various  State 
conventions  held  at  divers  times  and 
places,  have  declared  themselves  as  un- 
utterably opposed  to  the  pokiy  of  "dis- 
tribution, and  in  language  similar  to  the 
following : 

"Resolved,  That  the  Farmers'  Educa- 
tional and  Cooperative  Union  of  America 
in  national  convention  assembled  at 
Memphis,  Tenn.,  this  8th  day  of  Janu- 
ary, 1908,  and  representing  2,000.000  of 
farmers,  urge  upon  Cogress  the  immedi- 
ate abolition  of  the  Federal  bureau  of 
distribution  and  the  speedy  enactment  of 
laws  substantially  excluding  the  present 
enormous  alien  influx  by  means  of  an  in- 
creased head  tax,  a  money  requirement, 
the  illiteracy  test,  and  other  measures; 
and  that  we  call  upon  our  public  and 
especially  our  State  officials  to  prevent 
the  agricultural  section  from  beconr'ng 
a  dumping  ground  for  foreign  immi- 
grants." 

Great  numbers  of  memorials  and  peti- 
tions signed  by  thousands  of  the  people 
of  the  Sbiithern<  and  Western  States 
have  been  laid  before  Congress  protest- 
ing agaainst  this  polciy  of  distributon, 
and  demanding  in  the  strongest  trems  the 
passage   and   enforcement   of   restrictive 


The  White  Immigration       85 

immigration  laws  which  shall  exclude 
the  vast  hordes  of  undesirable  immi- 
grats  now  coming  into  this  country  from 
southeastern    Europe    and   southwestern 

Asia, 

Some  of  the  States,  for  instance  South 
Carolina,  after  having  established  a  Bu- 
reau of  Immigration  and  after  such  Bu- 
of  Immigration  had  brought  into  the 
areas  of  that  State,  two  shiploads  "of 
carefully  selected  foreigners"  seek:ng  to 
place  the  same  on  farmlands  and  sparse- 
ly settled  areas,  abandoned  that  policy 
as  impracticable  and  dangerous. 

It  is  apparent  that  the  great  mass  otf  the 
people  of  the  South  and  West  are  not 
desirous  of  adding  to  their  population  by 
any  such  methods,  and  that  the  oft 
published  statement  about  the  necessity 
for  the  bringing  into  such  several  states 
of  "farm  hands"  to  gather  the  harvests 
of  the  same  are  largely  exaggerated, 
and,  at  best,  such  demand  is  but  tempor- 
ary and  can  be  met  by  the  supply  of 
American  laborers  who  if  opportunity 
were  afforded  them  would  engage,  even 
transiently,  in  such  work.  The  fact  is 
that  this  widespread  attempt  for  the  dis- 
tribution of  aliens  into  the  fanning  sec- 
tions of  this  country  has  behind  it  the  di- 


86        Th£  White:  Immigration 

rect  inspiration  and  effort  of  the  great 
steamship  corporations,  and  some  of  our 
railway  corporations,  who  make  profit  by 
the  transportation  of  aliens  into  and 
across  this  country. 

iThe  "distribution  plan"  is  the  most 
specious  method  of  all  the  crafty  ways 
whidh  the  great  steamship  lines  follow 
in  order  to  maintain  the  enormous  pro- 
fits which  they  derive  from  the  trans- 
portation of  alien  immigrants  to  this 
country.  It  is  part  of  the  same  plan  and 
policy  which  for  years  they  have  in  a 
wholesale  way  followed  by  sending 
agents  into  the  various  countries  from 
which  these  immigrants  come  and  stim- 
ulating an  artificial  immigration,  by  in- 
ducing these  people  to  go  to  this  coun- 
try as  passengers  in  their  great  specially 
constructed  steerage  method  of  convey- 
ance. Tihese  factts  are  too  well  and  pos- 
itively established  to  be  successfully  dis- 
puted— and  these  steamship  companies 
and  some  of  our  great  labor-employing 
industrial  monopolies  are  almost  wholly 
resposible  for  the  presence  here  of  the 
great  masses  of  undesirable  immigrants, 
who  year  after  year  crowd  into  this 
country  to  the  detriment  of  our  native 
wage-workers  and  to  the  depreciation  of 


The  White:  Immigration    -    87 

tihe  American  standard  of  living-  and 
American  civilization.  From  these  two 
sources  arises  the  greater  part  of  the 
opposition  to  'the  passage  of  effective 
restrictive  immigration  laws  by  Congress. 


EIGHTEEN. 

Ou  Republic  is  based  upon  the  theory 
that  the  oeople  of  this  .country  by  their 
intelligence  and  votes  shall  govern  them- 
selves >and  control  all  the  functions  of 
government.  To  a  great  extent  that 
proposition  has  been  maintained  in  our 
history.  Necessarily  the  kind  of  gov- 
ernment and  civilization  we  have  di- 
rectly depends  upon  the  kind  of  people 
making  up  the  great  mass  of  our  popula- 
tion. It  follows,  moreover,  that  the  more 
homogeneous  our  population  is  the  more 
like  they  are  in  racial  development  and 
attributes,  the  more  united  they  are  in 
their  instincts,  customs  and  inspirations, 
the  more  complete  ap:l  harmonious  will 
be  their  efforts  toward  self-government 
and  &e  maintainance  of  liberty  and  hap- 
piness. 

Aside  from  the  industrial  and  social 
evils  already  rooted  in  our  country  to 
a  considerable  degree,  our  political  in- 
stitutions and  ideals  are  perceptibly  im- 
paired by  the  immigration  here  of  alien 
peoples  not  fitted  by  racial  capacity  or 
by  their  own  political  development  to 
understand  or  appreciate  the  fundamen- 
tal principles  of  our  government. 


The  White  Immigration       89 

'Formerly  the  immigration  from 
Northern  and  Northwestern  Europe, 
heretofore  alluded  to,  quite  readily  as- 
similated with  our  native  population,  and 
very  generally  adopted  and  maintained 
Americans  ideals  of  democracy  and 
American  governmental  methods.  These 
immigrants  differed  in  language,  many 
of  them,  from  the  English  speaking 
peoples  who  came  here  in  pre-revolution- 
ary  'days,  it  is  true,  but  like  the  latter 
they  were  racially  off-shoots  from  the 
Great  Aryan  root  stock,  or  tribes  that 
ages  ago  dwelt  in  Northwestern  Asia, 
and  who  possessed  to  a  considerable 
degree  file  germ  of  democracy.  In 
those  tribes  self  government  was 
inherent  in  the  blood,  it  was  in- 
stinctive, and  in  their  development  into 
distinct  communities  and  nations,  even 
through  the  evolution  of  diverse  tongues, 
they  still  preserved  t'h?t  ideal  which  is, 
in  fact,  the  basis  of  what  we  call  the 
Anglo-Saxon  civilization. 

In  this  respect  they  differed  from  all 
the  tribes  and  peoples  of  Eastern  or 
Oriental  Asia  where  tihe  very  thought 
of  self  government  seems  never  to  have 
existed.  In  the  Orient,  government 
from  without,  despotism,  autocracy  has 


90        The  White  Immigration 

been  and  still  is  the  controlling  power 
of  the  nations  and  peoples.  The  same 
theory  has  prevailed  with  the  Slavic 
peoples,  and  t'he  races  in  Southwestern 
Asia,  bordering  on  Europe,  from  which 
areas  now  come  the  throngs  of  unde- 
sirable immigrants  crowding  in  upon  us. 

The  conceptions  of  government  of 
such  immigrants  widely  differ  from  the 
American  standard.  Their  presence  in  a 
number  of  our  large  cities  and  Indus- 
trial centers  has  'already  made  it  impos- 
sible there  to  maintain  the  form  of  dem- 
ocratic institutions,  and  we  now  behold 
"government  by  commission/'  and  by 
various  like  autocratic  devices  estab- 
lished in  several  of  our  large  cities. 
Democracy,  government  by  suffrage 
has  proven  to  be  a  failure  under  con- 
ditions there  brought  about  largely  by 
the  inaptitude  and  inability  of  such  im- 
migrants to  comprehend  or  maintain 
the  American  ideal  standard.  De- 
mocracy, self  government  will  inevit- 
ably pass  away  in  our  great  civic  cen- 
ters under  the  continuance  of  present 
day  immigration. 

If  now  our  political  ideals  cannot  be 
maintained  in  our  great  cities,  how  long 
will  it  be  before   self   government  will 


The  White  Immigration       9.1 

vanish  generally  from  the  land?  It  is  a 
question  of  time  merely,  and  will '  foe 
hastened  by  the  'Continued  inpouring  of 
such  immigration. 

It  is  useless  to  say  that  many  of  these 
immigrants  from  Southeastern  Europe 
and  Southwestern  Asia  become  voters 
and  (assimilate  with  our  political  'n 
stitutions,  and  that  under  our  public 
school  system  the  second  generation  of 
the  same  have  better  conceptions  of  our 
political  institutions.  Where  such  immi- 
grants become  naturalized  and  exercise 
the  right  of  franchise  great  evil  arises 
from  the  massing  in  blocks  of  suoh  voiers 
by  their  separatte  nationalities,  whereby 
vicious  political  conditions  are  created, 
especially  in  our  large  cities.  If  this 
were  a  question  of  present  conditions 
merely,  such  evils  might  decrease  as  the 
years  go  by.  But  the  continued  coming 
in  of  greater  and  greater  multitudes  of 
these  immigrants  is  likely  to  go  on  as 
the  immigration  laws  now  stand. 

As  for  ithe  expectation  that  the  sec- 
ond generation  will  become  thoroughly 
Americanized  by  education  in  our 
schools  and  otherwise,  somewhat  of 
hope  lies.  But  there  is  often  too  much 
stress  laid  upon  trie  results  of  what  is 


92        The  White  Immigration 

called  "education."  By  education  can 
be  meant,  properly,  what  the  individual 
acquires  of  knowledge  and  capacity 
during  his  lifetime,  especially  in  youth, 
it  often  avails  much  of  betterment  and 
progress,  but  it  is  superficial,  in  a.  sense, 
and  comparitively  of  minor  importance 
to  what  such  individual  has  within  him 
by  heredity.  Beneath  the  education  lie 
the  instincts,  habits,  customs,  the  deep 
rooted  ways  of  thought  and  action  de- 
rived from  an  illimitable  inheritance 
pressing  down  with  infinite  compulsion, 
not  easily  swayed  or  effaced  by  book- 
learning  or  day  by  day  experience  or 
association.  Environment  has  much  to 
do  with  the  individual  career,  but  hered- 
ity is  the  root  of  life  after  all.  Capacity 
for  self  government,  for  a  comprehen- 
sion of  democraitk  institutions  cannot 
readily  be  acquired  by  those  whose  race 
and  civilization  have  never  had  or  have 
never  maintained  the  same — it  is  a  thing 
of  inheritance  rather  than  of  culture, 
and  in  that  respect  the  immigrants  re- 
ferred to  are  at  a  decided  disadvantage 
Unless  such  immigration  is  checked  by 
laws  in  future  the  hope  of  political  as- 
similation by  .methods  of  education  will 
be  futile  indeed. 


NINETEEN. 

T!he  thoughtlessness  and  indifference 
manifested  by  a  large  share  of  the  Amer- 
ican people  concerning  immigration  to 
this  country  is  accentuated  by  certain 
theories  put  forth  on  that  subject  by 
some  writers  and  publicists,  and  which 
are  accepted  as  scientific  facts  more  or 
less  generally.  Such  ideas  are  included 
in  what  has  been  termed  the  "Melting 
Pot"  theory  of  race  mixture.  They  are 
to  the  effect  that  America  is  the  great 
"Melting  Pot"  wherin  the  several  type* 
of  mankind,  as  well  as  the  minor  racial 
groups  of  men,  fare  to  be  crossed  and 
amalgamted  into  a  new  species  or  race 
distinctively  and  progressively  American, 
superior  in  character  and  ability  u>  'all 
existing  populations  of  the  earth. 

A  more  unscientific  and  ridiculous 
declaration  has  never  been  enunciated 
before  concerning  the  history  or  evolu- 
tion of  mankind.  It  is  contrary  to  all 
known  laws  of  nature,  and  to  the  fun- 
damental tnuths  of  human  development 
everywhere  observable. 

In  other  words,  immigration  is  ex- 
pected to  displace  the  orderly  and  eter- 
nal processes  of  life  ;  and  oust  of  the  mix- 


94        The  White  Immigration 

ture  of  the  heterogeneous,  the  unlike 
types  and  races  of  man,  a  homogeneous 
and  improved  type  is  to  be  evolved. 
The  law  of  evolution  is  from  the  homo- 
geneous to  the  heterogeneous  —  never 
from  the  heterogeneous  to  the  homo- 
geneous. 

Behind  all  the  operations  of  nature 
lies  the  great  ideals  of  Infinite  Intelli- 
gence working  out  widsom  through  the 
laws  of  heredity  and  environment,  li 
then  there  be  no  fixed  types,  no  ideals 
behind  all  these  manifestations  of  hu- 
man life  as  evolved  in  diverse  environ- 
ments and  conditions,  and  shaped  out 
by  the  laws  of  heredity,  then  it  may  well 
be  claimed  that  'all  human  existence  is 
the  product  of  Chance,  that  Infinite 
Wisdom  has  nought  to  do  with  the  evol- 
ution and  history  of  man. 

'Space  will  not  permit  any  lengthened 
discussion  of  this  subject — it  is  not 
necessary  in  fact.  Its  mere  statement  is 
against  common  sense  and  conflicts  with 
facts  multitudinous  and  universal. 

A  distinguished  writer  in  a  recent 
magazine  tarticle  quotes  with  approval 
the  "Melting  Pot"  theory  as  advocated 
by  Israel  Zangwill,  wherein  he  (Zang- 
will)    graphically   describes   how   at  our 


The  Whits  Immigration       95 

gates  are  poured  into  that  "Melting 
Pot."  Celt  and  Latin,  Slav  and  Teu- 
ton, Greek  and  Syrian,  Black  and  White" 
*     *     *     aii  to  unjte  tQ  bui.ld  ^  «Re_ 

public  of  man  and  tShe  kingdom  of  'God." 
It  is  difficult  to  understand  the  posi- 
tion thus  taken  concerning  Immigration 
to  this  country  by  both  of  these  writers. 
Israel  Zangwill  is  <a  most  distinguished 
member  of  a  race  whose  wonderful 
virility,  genius  and  beneficient  civiliza- 
tion has  survived  the  shock  of  ages  of 
oppression  and  persecution,  shedding  a 
light  meanwhile  upon  all  the  world  from 
the  earliest  historical  times,  and  which 
stands  to-day  in  the  very  vanguard  of 
progress  and  enlightenment — and  all  this 
is  chiefly  due  to  the  reason  that  as  a 
people  they  have  preserved  their  race 
purity  and:  have  not  amalgamated  with 
other  races  of  mankind.  Practically  the 
Hebrews  by  this  process  of  racial  con- 
servation tand  blood  preservation  present 
an  overwhelming  argument  in  .favor  of 
maintaining  the  law  of  nature  whidh 
works  by  development  of  types  rather 
than  by  mingling  of  types  or  by  raci'al 
.amalgamation.  All  that  the  Jew  has 
been,  is,  or  hopes  to  be,  proceeds  very 
largely   from  his   obedience   to  the   de- 


96        The  White  Immigration 

clared  law  to  stiand  racially  "separate 
and  apart"  from  alien  peoples  through 
all  his  generations. 

It  is  impossible  to  prove  that  the 
amalgamation  even  of  races  springing 
from  a  common  stock,  as  a  rule,  has 
ever  been  as  beneficial  as  would  have 
been  the  uninterrupted  continuation  of 
such  several  stocks  in  its  own  orderly 
evolution  and  development.  The  his- 
tory of  ancient  civilization  shows  that 
nations  have  progressed  and  flourished 
best  when  the  bllood  of  the  people,  ot 
the  race  had  been  preserved  pure;  and 
that  the  downfall  of  such  civilizations 
was  largely  due  to  the  infusion  of  alien 
bloods —  and  that  mongrelism  brought 
about  such  destruction.  The  passing 
away  of  the  Roman  and  other  civiliza- 
tions can  be  traced  to  this  cause.  Not 
from  hostile  incursion  by  barbarians 
from  without,  but  from  alien  amalga- 
mations within  did  Rome  fall ! 

The  most  advanced  and  powerful  na- 
tions of  today  are  severally  those  that 
keep  the  most  completely  the  racial 
stock  unmixed  'and  unimpaired  by  alien 
amalgamations.  Thereby  they  preserve 
the  special  excellencies  of  their  own 
civilization  and  progress.     Whatever  we 


The:  White  Immigration        97 

have  (attained  in  governmental  and  so- 
cial status  that  is  high  and  lofty  and 
worthy  of  continuance  has  come  to  us 
by  reason  of  the  fact  that  our  population, 
until  in  recent  times,  has  largely  been 
homogeneous  in  racial  stock,  in  historic 
development,  and  in  governmental  and 
social  ideas.  If  our  development  is  to 
contimue,  if  the  republic  is  to  endure,  we 
must  preserve  this  homogeneousnesb — 
for  the  mixture  of  unlike  races  by  amal- 
gamation, or  by  the  living  together  in 
the  same  habitat  of  unlike  peoples,  will 
surely  produce  unlikeness  not  only 
physically  and  mentally,  but  in  the  ideals 
that  must  lie  at  the  basis  of  our  institu- 
tion. In  other  words  the  "Melting  Pot" 
process  means  mongrelism — and  mon- 
golism means  the  destruction  of  the 
republic  and  of  the  development  thus  far 
obtained. 


TWENTY. 

The  United  States  Immigration  Com- 
mission created  by  Act  of  Congress  in 
February,  1907,  made  <a  most  exhaustive 
examination  in  this  country  and  abroad 
of  matters  pertaining  to  immigration, 
and:  the  results  of  its  investigations 
have  been  published  in  forty-two  vol- 
umes of  Reports  of  some  five  hundred 
pages  each.  The  Commission  says  re- 
striction is  demand  by  economic,  moral 
and  social  considerations :  and  they  pre- 
sent the  following  as  bearing  most  con- 
cisely and  directly  upon  the  nature  of 
the  remedies  which  they  suggest  may 
be  adopted  to  lessen  the  evils  of  unde- 
sirable immigration.     They  say : 

"The  investigations  of  the  Commissior; 
show  ian  oversupply  of  unskilled  labor 
in  basic  industries  to  'an  extent  which  in- 
dicates an  oversupply  of  unskilled  labor 
in  the  industries  of  the  country  as  a 
whole,  and  therefore  demands  legislation 
which  will  at  the  present  time  restrict  the 
further  "admission  of  such  unskilled 
labor." 

"It  is  desirable  in  making  the  restric- 
tion that — 

"(a)   A  sufficient  number  be  debarred 


Th£  White:  Immigration        99 

to  produce  a  marked  effect  upon  the  pre- 
sent supply  of  unskilled  labor. 

"(b)  As  far  as  possible,  the  -aliens 
excluded  should  be  those  who  come  to 
this  country  with  no  intention  to  become 
American  citizens  or  even  to  maintain 
a  permanent  residence  here,  but  merely 
to  save  enough,  by  the  adoption,  if  neces- 
sary, cf  low  standards  of  living,  to  re- 
turn permanently  to  their  home  country. 
Such  persons  are  usually  men  unaccom- 
panied by  wives  or  children. 

"(c)  As  far  as  possible,  the  aliens 
excluded  should  also  be  those  who,  By 
reason  of  their  personal  qualities  or  hab- 
its, would  least  readily  be  assimilated  or 
would  make  the  least  desirable  citizens. 

"The  following  methods  of  restricting 
immigration  have  been  suggested : 

"(a)  The  exclusion  of  those  unable  to 
read  or  write  in  some  language. 

"(b)  The  limitation  of  the  number  of 
eadh  race  arriving-  each  year  to  *a  certain 
percentage  of  the  average  of  that  race  ar- 
riving during  a  given  period  of  years. 

"(c)-  The  exclusion  of  unskilled  la- 
borers unaccompanied  by  wives  or  fam- 
ilies. 

"(d)    The  limitation  of  the  number  of 


ioo      The  White  Immigration 

immigrants  arriving  annually  at  any 
port. 

"(e)  The  material  increase  in  the 
amount  of  money  required  to  be  in  the 
possession  of  the  immigrant  at  the  port 
of  arrival. 

"(f)  The  material  increase  of  the 
head  tax. 

"(g)  ITihe  levy  of  the  head  tax  so  fas 
to  make  a  marked  discrimination  in  fav- 
or of  men  with  families. 

"All  these  methods  would  be  effective 
in  one  way  or  another  in  securing  re- 
strictions in  greater  or  less  degree.  A 
majority  of  the  Commission  favor  the 
reading  and  writing  test  as  the  most 
feasible  single  method  of  restricting  un- 
desirable immigration. " 

Concerning  the  illiteracy  prevailing 
among  present  day  immigrants  the  fol- 
lowing facts  may  be  mentioned: 

"The  percentage  of  illiteracy  among 
the  old  immigrants,  that  is,  those  who 
antedated  '1883,  was  only  2.7  per  cent. 
far  below  that  of  our  native  population. 
The  rate  of  illiteracy  among  the  new 
immigrants,  that  which  has  been  coming 
there  since  1883,  is  on  an  average  about 
36  per  cent,  'and  the  bulk  of  this  immigra- 
tion,  the  most  (Undesirable  portion  of  it. 


Tn  e  W  hit  k   !  m  m  i  ( ;  r  at  ion      i o  1 

is  of  a  much  higher  degree  of  illiteracy 
than  the  general  average.  Of  the  1,500,- 
1  Oo  south  the  Italians  that  came  to 
America  from  1899  to  1909,  over  800,- 
000,  or  54  per  cent,  could  neither  read 
nor  write ;  54  per  cent  of  the  Syrians 
who  came  during  that  period  could 
neither  read  nor  write ;  35  per  cent  of 
the  Poles  who  came  during  that  period 
could  neither  read  nor  write ;  68  per  cent 
of  the  Portuguese;  38  per  cent  of  the 
Ruthenians ;  51  per  cent  of  the  Russians  ; 
?8  per  cent  of  the  Turks ;  27  per  cent  of 
the  Greeks,  and  41  per  cent  of  the  Bul- 
garians and  Servians  and  Montenegrins 
could  neither  read  nor  write.  In  short, 
something  over  three-fourths  of  this 
entire  new  immigration  is  made  up  of 
a  people  the  large  part  of  whom  are 
densely  ignorant  and  illiterate." 

The  illiteracy  of  immigrants  from 
southern  and  •eastern  Europe  is  over 
twelve  times  as  great  as  that  of  aliens 
from  northwestern  Elurope ;  and  the  il- 
literacy of  Armenians,  Japanese,  and 
Syrians  is  also  high. 

In  T909  over  three-fifths  of  the  total 
immigration  was  of  these  illiterate  races. 

Of  the  Poles.  861,303  have  come  in 
since  the  War  with  Spain,  and  of  them 


io2      The  White  Immigration 

354  per  cent  could  not  read  and  write. 
Of  the  Slovaks,  342,  583,  and  of  them 
24  per  cent  could  not  read  and  write. 
Of  the  Croatians  and  Slovenians,  320,- 
977  have  come  in,  and  of  them  36.1  per 
cent  could  not  read  and  write. 

The  Portuguese  sent  38,122,  and  ot 
them  68.2  per  cent  were  illiterate.  They 
should  not  properly,  of  course,  be  count- 
ed as  ha  vino-  come  from  southeastern 
Europe.  Twelve  thousand  six  hundred 
'and  seventy  Turks  came  in,  and  of  them 
59.5  per  cent  were  illiterate;  47,834 
Syrians,  and  of  them  53.3  per  cent  were 
illiterate.  The  Bulgarians,  Servians,  and 
Montenegrins  sent  in  95,  596,  and  41.7 
per  cent  were  illiterate.  Of  the  south 
Italians  there  came  in  1,690,376,  and  of 
them  53.9  per  cent  were  illiterate. 

For  nearly  twenty  years  the  proposi- 
tion to  make  use  of  an  educational  or 
illiteracy  test  for  the  purpose  of  exclud- 
ing" objectionable  foreigners  has  been 
agitated  by  great  numbers  of  American 
people  and  been  discussed  most  widely 
by  all  kinds  of  educational  economical 
and  civic  bodies  in  'all  section  of  the  coun- 
try. It  has  been  considered  by  Con- 
gress ;  and  by  decisive  majorities  meas- 
ures to  that  end  have  passed  in  the  sev- 


Tuiv  Whits  Immigration      103 

cral  branches  of  Congress  nearly  a  dozen 
times.  Such  a  measure  has  been  recom- 
mended by  President  McKinley  and  Pre- 
sident Roosevelt  in  messages  to  Cong- 
gress;  and  such  a  policy  has  been  en- 
dorsed by  planks  in  the  platforms  of  the 
great  parties  during  presidential  elec- 
tions. It  is  not  intended  here  to  review 
the  history  of  such  efforts,  or  to  present 
the  question  from  any  partisan  stand- 
point. 

The  illiteracy  test  for  immigrants, 
varying  according  to  tihe  provisions  in 
the  several  bills  presented  in  Congress 
from  time  to  time  provides  tlhat  all  aliens 
over  sixteen  years  of  age,  physically 
capable  of  reading,  who  cannot  read  and 
write  in  some  language,  shall  not  be  ad- 
mitted to  this  country.  The  various 
measures  provide,  however,  that  after 
an  alien  has  been  duly  admitted  under  the 
illiteracy  test  he  may  send  for  certain 
relatives  to  come  to  this  country  who 
themselves  may  not  be  able  to  pass  that 
test. 

This  test  as  declared  by  the  Industrial 
Commission  seems  to  be  the  most  practi- 
cable of  all  measures  suggested  'as  tend- 
ing shr.it  out    undesirable    white    immi- 


(04      The  White  Immigration 

It  would  appear  that  if  the  illiteracy 
test  used  by  the  English  Colonies  of 
Australia  and  South  Africa  should  be 
adopted  here,  it  would  prove  a  more  ef- 
fective and  far-reaching  illiteracy  test 
than  any  now7  pending  in  Congress. 
This  test  provides  that  the  immigrant 
shall  be  able  to  read  and  write  in  some 
European  language,  including  Yiddish. 
Thereby  would  be  shut  out,  for  the 
present  at  least,  all  Yellow  immigration, 
as  well  as  a  very  large  part  of  unde- 
sirable White  immigration. 


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